LeVar Burton was a special guest on the Canadian talk show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight to speak about the new Reading Rainbow kid’s app called RRKidz. After a few questions and comments about the app the conversation moved on to Burton’s connection to Star Trek.

LeVar Burton starred as Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge for seven years on Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) and in all four TNG big screen films. He also made guest a guest appearance in Star Trek Voyager, as well as filling the role of director for 2 episodes of TNG and 29 episodes for the various Star Trek series’ that followed after TNG.

Burton told the host that what drew him to the franchise was the fact that in the Trek Verse everybody is welcome. “That was the genius of Star Trek for me growing up was Gene Roddenberry,” added Burton. “I was and still am a huge science fiction fan. In Gene’s vision there was a place for me and that meant a lot.”

Watch this clip of the full Star Trek section of the interview.

You can meet LeVar in person in Kansas City, Missouri at the 2014 Planet Comicon running Friday, March 14 through Sunday, March 16. Joining Burton on the dais will be most of the cast of TNG (minus Patrick Stewart who will be on stage in New York at that time). The special TREKTACULAR Event (Sunday, March 16) will be hosted by Captain Kirk himself, Mr. William Shatner.