David Archuleta Powered Through Mormon Shame

<p dir="ltr">David Archuleta shot to fame while competing on American Idol when he was just 17 years old.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">During his time on the show he was a poster boy for his Mormon faith, but behind the scenes he was forced to hide his sexuality and queerness. He describes all of this in his memoir <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Devout/David-Archuleta/9781668222485">Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself.</a> David talks to Sam about learning to accept himself, why his time on American Idol was terrifying, and the surprising ways he&rsquo;s found community after leaving his religion.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">David Archuleta&rsquo;s new holiday album&nbsp;<a href="https://davidarchuleta.com/music/">Warm Me Up</a> is out this fall. Check out <a href="https://davidarchuleta.com/tour/">his website</a> for tour dates.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Sign up for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/the-sam-sanders-show">Sam&rsquo;s Newsletter</a> to get behind the scenes stuff from every interview each week.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><em>The Sam Sanders Show</em> is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.</p>

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