Kate Hudson has always loved acting, but she feels the most like herself when she’s singing.

It’s how she landed her role in the musical drama ‘Song Sung Blue.’ She stars alongside Hugh Jackman as performers in a Neil Diamond tribute band. She’s now nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Kate tells Sam about how Quincy Jones encouraged her to sing as a kid and how she finally found the courage to share her voice.

Kate also gets real about growing up in a famous family and the difficulties of working in Hollywood. Plus, she explains why she will always be grateful for the romantic comedies of her past.

“I walk down the street and I connect with girls from 13 years old right now to 70 years old. And I did that because I made movies that might not have necessarily got me nominated, but it's made people feel happy.”

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

From the Billboard charts to the Oscars, K-Pop is bigger than ever in Hollywood. Along with its global domination, there’s a dark side to the genre. Blatant appropriation of Black American culture. K-Pop stars caught using racial slurs. Fandoms torn apart over anti-Black racism.

So, how should we all be thinking about K-Pop in 2026? Sam poses that question to Dr. Sarah Olutola, novelist and professor at Lakehead University. Her research centers on pop culture, Black culture and K-Pop. They examine the history, geopolitics and future of a global system largely built off Black American art.

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders

Today we’re sharing Sam’s episode from This Is Uncomfortable.

The show is all about life and how money messes with it. Sam joins host Reema Khrais to answer listener questions about finances and dating. They tackle issues with scammers, secret investments, and polyamorous partners.

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

Comedian and actor Ms. Pat kinda does it all.

She performs standup, hosts her own podcast and created the acclaimed sitcom The Ms. Pat Show on BET+. The series is known for mixing a laugh track with real issues like racism, sexual assault and immigration.

A recent episode follows Ms. Pat’s family as they help a young kid hide from ICE agents, while the show’s fictional President comes to town. Chaos ensues, but the story demonstrates Ms. Pat’s sharp ability to use humor as a vehicle to talk about pain.

She tells Sam about the pushback she got from the network’s parent company over the episode and why she will never be silenced.

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

The moment is Mormon. From The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, to The Bachelorette, to popular TikTok accounts like Ballerina Farm, women of the LDS faith are dominating pop culture right now.

Sam breaks it all down with author and journalist Bridget Read. Her latest piece for New York Magazine is titled: Under The Mormon Influence.

Bridget unveils the ‘receipts, proof, timeline…everything’ behind this phenomenon. Plus, could all this new attention radically change the religion and its followers?

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

Director Nia DaCosta has done it all. Horror, period drama, and even a Marvel blockbuster. Through it all, Nia is always asking: What does it mean to be human? Her latest films Hedda and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple are no different.

She tells Sam about how horror themes mirror the real world, how she found her voice as one of the few Black women directors in the business, and why she’s not interested in teaching white people about race through her films.

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

As awards season grinds on, we're revisiting a topic that really irks Sam – bad wigs on the big screen. Why do sooo many wigs look so wrong? Here to break down what’s going on is Hollywood hairstylist and wigmaker Dawn Dudley. Her work has been seen in A Star is Born, Rob Zombie’s The Munsters, HBO’s Westworld and tons more. She breaks down what’s really happening on Hollywood sets and says it’s often not the hairstylist’s fault.

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.

Actor and comedian Sherry Cola often finds wild parallels between the characters she plays on screen and her personal life, including her new role in the hit dramedy Shrinking.

She breaks down how the show normalizes therapy with humor, what she’s learned from years of therapy, and why she picks roles that break the stereotype of the model minority. She also shares how playing a queer character in Freeform’s Good Trouble helped her finally come out to her parents.

Plus, how Sherry’s early career on the radio prepared her for the big screen.

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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.