The Sam Sanders Show - podcast cover

The Sam Sanders Show

KCRW & Sam Sanders•www.kcrw.com
Society & Culture
TV & Film

The Sam Sanders Show from KCRW is your guide to entertainment. Find out what makes your favorite artists tick, dissect the trends that shape our culture, or just make sense of that random meme you can’t stop thinking about. Join us every week to unpack the pop culture we love.

Sign up for Sam’s Newsletter to get behind the scenes stuff from every interview each week.

Sam Sanders is an award-winning podcast and radio host. He’s been named best podcast host by both The Ambies and the iHeart Podcast Awards. He was one of the founding hosts of The NPR Politics Podcast and the host who launched both It’s Been A Minute from NPR and Into It from Vulture.

 

Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Follow on
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
RSS
YouTube
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Episodes.fm
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Is 2026 the Year Everything Started to Look Too Perfect?

EVENT ALERT! Join us LIVE on June 28 at Dynasty Typewriter in LA. Get tickets here . At the halfway point of 2026, Sam is joined by Traci Thomas ( The Stacks ) and Christiana Mbakwe Medina ( Pop Syllabus ) to ask what this year in pop culture is really becoming. Their answer moves from the rise of “The Sculpt” and the pressure to optimize everything about ourselves, to the bigger feeling that so much of culture now looks filtered, flattened, and strangely unreal. They also get into the dominance...

Jun 19, 2026•45 min

The Real Reason American Men are Struggling

Today we’re sharing an episode of Apple News In Conversation , guest hosted by Sam. The headlines say that American men are in crisis. But what does that actually mean — and what does it look like up close? Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn spent five years inside the lives of four different men to find out. His new book, American Men , explores the gap between masculine ideals and the reality of men’s lived experience. Sam sat down with Ritter Conn to talk about what those four lives reveal about m...

Jun 16, 2026•31 min

Leslie Jones Says Comedy Needs Gatekeepers Again

EVENT ALERT! Join us LIVE on June 28 at Dynasty Typewriter in LA. Get tickets here. Leslie Jones thinks comedy has a problem. The comedian and former 'Saturday Night Live' cast member joins Sam to talk about how comedy has changed, why viral fame doesn’t equal success, and why too many young comics are skipping the hard part: Honing their craft. She also reflects on her years at SNL, what she’s learned from nearly 40 years in comedy, and why she wants gatekeepers back. Plus: menopause, comedy cl...

Jun 12, 2026•55 min
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android