Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle & RadiotopiaEar Hustle
Ear Hustle is prison slang for eavesdropping, and that’s what listening to the show feels like: a raw, often funny, and always surprising peek into the reality of life inside prison.
Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods co-created the show that launched in 2017 while Earlonne was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, where Nigel was a volunteer teaching photography. Since Earlonne’s release in 2018, the show has expanded to include stories from prisons across the state, including the California Institution for Women, as well as stories about getting out of prison and starting over, post-incarceration.
From finding romance, to grappling with a life sentence, to trying to parent via 15-minute phone calls, Ear Hustle stories deliver what This American Life host Ira Glass calls a “"very real” and “untragic” take on prison life.
Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent listener-supported podcasts. Discover audio with vision at radiotopia.fm and learn more about Ear Hustle at earhustlesq.com.
Ear Hustle is prison slang for eavesdropping, and that’s what listening to the show feels like: a raw, often funny, and always surprising peek into the reality of life inside prison.
Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods co-created the show that launched in 2017 while Earlonne was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, where Nigel was a volunteer teaching photography. Since Earlonne’s release in 2018, the show has expanded to include stories from prisons across the state, including the California Institution for Women, as well as stories about getting out of prison and starting over, post-incarceration.
From finding romance, to grappling with a life sentence, to trying to parent via 15-minute phone calls, Ear Hustle stories deliver what This American Life host Ira Glass calls a “"very real” and “untragic” take on prison life.
Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent listener-supported podcasts. Discover audio with vision at radiotopia.fm and learn more about Ear Hustle at earhustlesq.com.
Ear Hustle brings you the stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it.
Season eight of Ear Hustle kicks off Sept 8th with the story of one of the most notorious days in San Quentin’s history: August 21st, 1971.
A little preview of the upcoming season.
New stories from inside, headed your way starting March 5
A year spent with kids caught up in New York City’s criminal justice system
What’s new in SQ.
An episode from the vaults makes San Quentin the main character.
A true story, told live.
A 1997 hate crime and its long aftermath.
Nigel and Earlonne look back at their first episode.
Incarcerated men are from Mars; incarcerated women are from Venus.
The mysteries behind San Quentin’s epic murals.
Introducing Life Jolt, a new podcast series about the experiences of currently and formerly incarcerated women in Ontario, Canada.
Finding a roommate can be tough. Finding someone to share a 4' x 9' space with is a whole 'nother story.
While the perceived thrill and glamour of gang life are often too strong to resist, the hard consequences of this seduction can last a lifetime.
Meet Rauch, a man incarcerated at San Quentin who has figured out how to “look out” for dozens of critters around the place.
The hole, the box, solitary confinement… stories from four men who spent years completely isolated in prison.
Earlonne and Nigel answer questions mailed in via postcard, aka "kites," from listeners around the world.
Being married in prison is common. Opportunities to get intimate with your spouse are not.
The color of your skin influences your life on the inside, from sharing food to celebrating birthdays.
How do inmates with profoundly long sentences cope with their realities, and maintain a sense of hope and well-being as the years pass?
Dealing with aging and death is never easy. In prison, it's especially challenging.
There are only a few ways to leave prison: serve your time, get out early on parole... or escape.
Just in time for the holidays, meet some of the musicians of San Quentin, whose songs were featured in season one.
Coming March 14: Season two of Ear Hustle!
“Firsts” in prison can be especially memorable.
Sex trafficking crimes are hard to talk about. In this episode, Sara and LA share their individual experiences of being “in the life.”
Looking good and feeling good matters just as much on the inside, as on the outside.
Parenting is never easy, but from prison it's especially challenging.
You've asked (via postcard) and we have answers!
Death row is almost like a prison within a prison.
Inside San Quentin, if you’re gay you hide it. But if you’re trans you can’t hide it.
Leaving an organization or community often calls for an exit strategy – even in prison.
Ear Hustle is back September 12! In the meantime, enjoy this preview of season three.
Bonus episode! Earlonne’s out, and the crew drives to Sacramento to interview the man who made that happen: Governor Jerry Brown.
Earlonne meets a fan, Quentin Blue strikes a chord and one last Radiotopia plug.
Ear Hustle responds to a gang of questions from listeners about daily life in San Quentin.
In prison, life’s major milestones usually pass at a distance.
Earlonne and Nigel got some big news earlier this week, from the office of California Governor Jerry Brown.
On the heels of a summer lockdown, season three of Ear Hustle launches with an episode about... lockdowns.
Being an immigrant in an American prison can pose unique challenges.
Built in 1852, San Quentin has its own story to tell.
When you’re incarcerated, falling in love with prison staff or volunteers is prohibited. But... it happens.
Stories of romance, dating, and playing the field in prison.
Ear Hustle is back with season four, starting June 5.
In the Reception Center at San Quentin, guys learn the prison ropes while waiting to find out where they’ll serve time.
Hardly anyone writes letters anymore... except in (and to) prison.
Everyone in prison dreams about the moment they’ll get out, but it’s the days, weeks and months after that make or break you.
After serving a long prison sentence, it can take a while to get your mack back.
I think we can all agree: It’s high time we devoted a full episode to the music of San Quentin.
Believe it or not, there’s more to prison jobs than pounding out license plates and slinging cafeteria food.
Getting a job post-incarceration, with a criminal record trailing you, is all kinds of challenging.
By now an Ear Hustle tradition, this season’s “Catch a Kite” episode tackles questions and shares theme remixes from listeners around the world.
Receiving a death sentence in California doesn’t always mean you’ve reached the end of the road.
The violent encounter in 1997 between Tom, a cop, and Jason, a teenager in a gang, was inevitable. The decades-long aftermath was anything but.
Ear Hustle team update: Antwan is out!
Our network, Radiotopia, lets producers like us dream big.
A formerly incarcerated woman tells Earlonne and Nigel about the joys and dangers of being a commercial truck driver.
Gator, Razor, Kill Switch, Mother Dearest — Ear Hustle is back with the stories and legends behind prison nicknames.
As lockdowns loom worldwide, we revisit and update a 2018 episode all about surviving prison lockdowns.
Relationships between incarcerated people and correctional officers are… complicated.
One crime is treated differently than all others, both inside and outside of prison.
Four women share stories of trying to love across prison walls.
Ear Hustle answers questions from kids incarcerated at a juvenile facility in Madison, Wisconsin.
Running from the law to avoid incarceration can become its own kind of prison.
Some people walk out of prison and straight into a whole new type of incarceration.
Ear Hustle isn’t the only podcast out there telling stories of life in prison and post-incarceration.
Stories from when you’re locked up and on the road.
Stories about the things you keep with you in prison and the stuff you leave behind
Four formerly-incarcerated contestants put their cooking skills to the test.
When a parent is incarcerated, the relationship with their kid is changed forever.
Nigel and Earlonne sit down with 1A’s Jenn White and WBEZ for one of our favorite on-stage events ever.
In the middle of California’s worst fire season on record, we meet a few formerly incarcerated people training to become firefighters.
In the wake of a violent crime, a perpetrator and victim ask what accountability and survival really look like.
Stories from the COVID outbreak in California’s prisons
Introducing “Suave,” a podcast series about the system that sentences juveniles to life in prison, told through one man’s story.
Three Ear Hustlers, revisited
Stories from prison visiting rooms
Two stories about being a transgender person, in prison.
A small Israeli bakery in San Francisco has become a lifeline for people just out of prison.
Listeners have questions; our team found answers. Catch a Kite is back!
Stories from the pages of the prison catalogs.
Cops, citizens, and the power of empathy.
How do you live a meaningful life when nearly all of it is spent behind bars?
The 50-year legacy of San Quentin’s deadliest day.
Stories about bail, bail bonds, and the strange purgatory of waiting to get locked up.
The Ear Hustle music episode returns!
“The definition of bonnaroo is to elevate the evolution of everything in existence.”
Three stories about surviving the intense isolation and disorientation of imprisonment in a foreign country.
The promise of sports starting up post-pandemic brings new people, new possibilities, and new heartbreak onto the fields of San Quentin.
Behind the scenes of the 30-Day Ear Hustle Challenge.
The roses and thorns of being a dad from prison.
Introducing Written Off, a podcast featuring formerly incarcerated young writers.
Our inside colleague Rahsaan “New York” Thomas’ prison sentence has been commuted by California Governor Gavin Newsom. What does that mean for him?
Stories about trying to get what you want, inside prison.
Life lived through 15-minute phone calls.
Falling in love, in prison.
In a remote part of Northern California, a prison town is losing its oldest prison. Ear Hustle took a road trip to hear how Susanvillers are reacting to the news.
What’s it like to go years, even decades, without intimate physical contact with another person?
Michael’s last memory before going to prison is set in a parking lot in Bakersfield, California.
From a booth at Applebee’s and the corner of Firmona and Marine Avenues in Lawndale, Ryan and Earlonne share memories of their final moments before heading to prison.
In My Mother Made Me, the new series from Radiotopia Presents, a mother and son consider what each has learned from the other.
From the show "Uncuffed": Two unexpected letters arrive at San Quentin.
Life in prison sure can mess with your senses.
Lots of people lie about their crimes. Sam kept lying, for 23 years.
Postcards from our first-ever international reporting trip.
Privacy is a glimmer of freedom.
The architecture of prison shapes how you do your time.
The music episode is back!
Ear Hustle goes inside Norway’s famed prisons.
An interview takes an unexpected turn.
Ear Hustle says goodbye to dear friend and “approver” extraordinaire, Lieutenant Sam Robinson.
We meet Rahsaan “New York” Thomas at the gates of San Quentin.
How does incarceration shape your dreams?
Change is hard.
What 46 years in prison will do to a man.
A new law shakes things up for trans men and trans women in prison.
Residents of the California Institution for Women answer listeners’ questions about life inside a women’s prison.
The Ear Hustle Trash Challenge
How can you tell if someone’s really changed?
Is there such a thing as a prison uniform? An Ear Hustle collab explores.
Stories about LGBTQ life behind bars.
While we're at work on Season 12, we bring you an episode from one of our favorite new shows.
Sunup to sundown on San Quentin Prison’s lower yard.
Older residents at a women’s prison grapple with their regrets and dreams for the future.
Where you live when you’re fresh out of prison.
Five stories from our new producing team inside San Quentin
Three stories of the paranormal, from San Quentin and the California Institution for Women.
Five stories from the Central California Women’s Facility.
A violent crime and its aftermath.
Ear Hustle turns 100!
The many things you long for from prison and the compromises you’re willing to make.
Facing the end of life at a prison hospice.
Nigel surprises Earlonne with a story about one of their long-time colleagues inside San Quentin.
Give the objects some respect.
Let’s give the moms their due.
Incarcerated people around the country answer listener questions about life in prison.
An OG Crip talks about leaving the life behind.
Facing a long-term prison sentence … with your mom.
What does it mean to be comfortable inside prison?
What books can do in prison.
If San Quentin could vote.
Nigel takes Earlonne on a mystery tour of San Quentin.
The final stops of Nigel’s San Quentin mystery tour.
Nigel and Earlonne’s San Quentin memory places.
We’re sorry, Julie.
Two red lines and the Philosopher of 7-Eleven.
The day before she committed her crime, Linda went to Mass with her mother.
Earlonne looks back at one of his favorite episodes.
The roses and thorns of being a dad from prison.
The terrible fires in SoCal have us thinking about incarcerated firefighters and dusting off this episode from the archives.
A former bank robber looks back on his glory days.
Plus: The world premiere of the Ear Hustle Birthday Song
What remains of San Quentin's death row
Life on California’s only death row for women
The team responds to recent listener feedback.
Earlonne’s back with another “mystery” episode — and a new co-host.
There’s no manual for being a DUI offender in prison.
The photos we keep
Cops, citizens, and the power of empathy.
Some days, Tam feels like he’s gonna lose his sh*t.
Sunup to sundown on San Quentin Prison’s lower yard.
What’s going at San Quentin these days?
Immigrants in prison, 2018
Ear Hustle, live in Los Angeles
Women incarcerated in Ohio and Oklahoma answer listeners' questions about life inside prison.
Zip zap zop
The unwritten rules of Crossroads
Starting Next Week: The Loop
October 1, 20252min 40sec
Next week we’re dropping the first episode of our six-part series about kids who are involved, one way or another, in New York City’s criminal justice system, and an innovative program that’s teaching them the skills of theatrical improv. We’re calling it “The Loop.” Here’s a sneak peek.
You can find the series, starting October 8, wherever you listen to Ear Hustle.
Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.
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