Janet Varney (the voice of Korra on “The Legend of Korra”) and Dante Basco (who voiced Zuko on “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and General Iroh on “Korra”) host Avatar: Braving the Elements Podcast. It’s Nickelodeon’s official podcast about everything in the Avatarverse. “Braving the Elements” (available wherever you get your podcasts) is now in its second season, with new episodes dropping every Tuesday. I recently chatted with Varney and Basco at New York Comic-Con about “BTE”, the lasting impact of “Avatar” and a connection with the voice actor of a famous animated feline. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: So “Avatar”‘s been around for 17 years? That’s insane!

Dante Basco: Don’t say that, Jackson!

Janet Varney: I know. Let the illusion of timelessness exist for the actors.

DB: We just did our podcast this morning and you said the date and I was like, “Whoa.”

JV: We just did a table read for the live podcast here for New York [Comic-Con]… and I said, “As you look at your script you should see… Huh… the year 2006…”

DB: November 6th, 2006.

JV: How about that? That’s a long time ago! (laughs)

JM: How did the live recording go today? Was it fun?

JV: It was great — really fun.

DB: It was awesome. Whenever we get to do podcasts together, it’s so much fun. We did our first one at NYCC a year ago, so it’s like our anniversary. Not only was it our first live podcast, it was the first time we actually did the podcast together in the same room.

JV: It’s funny — we’ve done so many cons since then, but if we’re not doing this podcast at those cons, then we’re just seeing each other in our rooms, seeing our heads. Just our little bobbleheads, like pretty much everyone else doing podcasts over the past couple years.

DB: And we get to see our producers.

JM: When did you know that “Avatar” was a phenomenon? I remember when it beat “SpongeBob” for the Kids Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon that one year…

JV: Ohhhhh….

JM: I was like, “This is official legend status in the Nickelodeon Hall of Fame.”

DB: I don’t think I was aware of any of that.

JV: (laughs)

DB: I did go to the Kids Choice Awards one year. I think I brought my niece to it. It was very wild. There was a lot going on. I was like, “What am I doing here?” A million kids are screaming right now.

JV: (laughs) I went once.

DB: This was the early 2000’s. We didn’t have a Twitter or a Facebook when we were doing it. I had no clue. And it wasn’t for us.

JV: And it wasn’t blowing up your MySpace or Friendster?

DB: (laughs) My Friendster was not hot at that time. My first inkling that I knew it was something bigger than I knew was when I was doing a movie called “Take the Lead”. We were shooting in Toronto. I kept leaving the set to do a cartoon. And one of the other actors, who was an adult, was like, “Where are you going?” I told him, “I’m doing this cartoon for Nickelodeon… called ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’.” He freaks out. He’s twentysomething. He’s like, “Who are you?” I’m like, “I’m Prince Zuko.” He’s like, “You’re the Fire Prince?!” He’s freaking out. I’m like, “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.” I thought this was some after school TV show for kids. And then again, I ran into Jason Isaacs at Sundance… he plays General Zhao on the show… and he was like, “Dante, that cartoon we do. What’s going on?” We were at Sundance and people were talking about this cartoon.

JM: Amazing.

DB: And I’m still blown away all the time. We go to cons and there are big rooms of people to see us do the podcast or to talk to us and hang out with us for a few minutes. And the impact that it’s had on their lives is phenomenal.

JM: So Antonio Banderas starred in “Take the Lead”. Look at what he’s done with Puss in Boots and the power of voice acting.

DB: Shout-out to Antonio Banderas. He also had a whole moment with me. When I kept sneaking off set to do this cartoon… [Dante does a Banderas impression], “Dante, where are you going? You’re a voice actor too?” He had this whole conversation with me. He’s like, “I’m also a voice actor.” I’m like, “You’re Puss in Boots! I know who you are!”

JM: Yeah, “Shrek 2” came out just a couple years before!

DB: We had some talks about voice acting. Very illuminating. And I was very happy he included me and him in the world of voice acting.

JV: You guys are basically the same!

DB: Comrades.

JM: How are you able to connect with your fans through this new season [of your podcast]?

JV: It’s wonderful. As podcast listeners, and as lovers of the thing we did, we understand how intimate it is to sit in someone’s ears and talk about a thing they love. We really show up for it. Not to pat ourselves on the back but the enthusiasm is real. And that’s the same enthusiasm that carries over into doing comic-cons. Now we have this double relationship where it used to be that we would meet people through comic-cons and just get that one-on-one time there. But now it’s happening on social media. Now it’s people coming up to us and saying, “I listen to the podcast every Tuesday. I listen to the episodes more than once.” The conversation about the podcast is weaving into the conversation about the show, and that’s exactly what we hoped.