Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle & Radiotopia
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About This Podcast
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.
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Recent Episodes
S17E8 Over and Over and Over and Over
Even though they share a difficult past, Sadiq and Demarion had never met in person, and it was probably best that it stayed that way. When an event at San Quentin brought them together, Demarion…
S17E7 Tricks of the Trade
At North Kern State Prison, incarcerated people are being trained to do what staff cannot: provide peer support, whether it’s with addiction, cellie drama, or just adjusting to prison life. Nigel and…
S17E6 Bag of Skittles
From obsessive body-building to extreme tattoos and other transformations: stories about the ways people in prison think about and try to change their bodies. Plus: “the California body,”…
S17E5 Corny-Ass Episode
Nigel says no matter where you are, everyone has a story to tell about a hug: good, bad, or awkward. Earlonne isn’t buying it. Thanks to Alonzo, Deonza, Harmon, Maurice, Ralph, Carlos, Michael, and…
S17E4 Revisiting “Chicken on the Bone”
For our latest installment in the ”revisiting” series, Nigel and Earlonne time-travel back to Season 4 and the uncertain futures of men who were living on San Quentin’s now-shuttered death row. Big…
S17E3 My Favorite Color
The last time Domonica saw her dad, he was behind prison glass and she was just six years old. Now, more than two decades later, they’re trying to rebuild their relationship. But a few things stand…
S17E2 Dear Ear Hustle
The letters come from all over: incarcerated men and women listening to Ear Hustle on their tablets, fans tuning in from as far as Australia and the Philippines. Most of the time, the feedback is…
S17 Ear Hustle Presents: Blood Will Tell
Today, we're sharing something a little different in the feed: an episode of the podcast Blood Will Tell. Blood Will Tell chronicles the aftermath of a birthday party in suburban San Jose that turned…
S17E1 Songs of San Quentin
From beatboxing, to blues, to a song of praise once heard in the Met Museum, musicians in San Quentin have created some indelible songs. And we have featured a number of them on Ear Hustle. In this…
S16E10 Revisiting “Gold Coats and OGs”
Earlonne brings his second selection from the archives: an episode from Ear Hustle’s first season about how people care for each other in a harsh place. Dealing with aging and death is never easy.…
S16E9 Revisiting “Saber-Toothed Cat”
At the start of a new year, Nigel revisits an episode about time passing and one man’s experience of four decades behind bars: our 2023 episode “Saber-Toothed Cat.”What’s the difference between an…
S16E8 The Loop Ep. 6: Make Your Partner Look Good
For the final episode of our all-NYC series, we take the train uptown to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, where a group of incarcerated dads from Rikers Island are playing games, eating lunch, and…
S16E7 The Loop Ep. 5: Yes, And ...
Kaysha is in her early 20s: low on resources, but big on dreams. Sometimes, those dreams feel tantalizingly close to reality; other times, she's pulled back into a life she badly wants to leave…
S16E6 The Loop Ep. 4: Where’s the Conflict?
Boys at Crossroads outnumber girls 10 to one, but if you ask staff about who’s harder to work with, it’s the girls, hands down. To find out for ourselves and learn more about life on the girls’ hall,…
S16E5 The Loop Ep. 3: No Violence
At Crossroads, just three little letters — SMD — can spark some very big drama. This episode is all about conflict: watching it, responding to it, and getting it started. Keys fly, milk is thrown,…
S16E4 The Loop Ep. 2: Who What Where
Nigel and Earlonne get a peek inside one of Crossroad’s residential halls, and hear from kids and staff about what it’s like to live and work here. Along the way, they cause some drama of their…
S16E3 The Loop Ep. 1: The Five Rules of Drama Club
In the first episode of Ear Hustle’s all-new, all-New-York series, Nigel and Earlonne head to Brooklyn to hang out with incarcerated kids and staff at the Crossroads Juvenile Center. For Earlonne,…
Starting Next Week: The Loop
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…
S16E2 Catch a Kite: On Tour
What textures do you miss in prison? How is menopause handled behind bars? What makes you feel dignified? These are just some of the questions we collected from listeners on our live tour this summer…
S16E1 Ear Hustle Live! 2023
At the end of 2023, Ear Hustle embarked on its first live tour — a celebration of our 100th episode. Nigel and Earlonne shared favorite moments from the show’s history, and a few of our talented…
Frequently Asked Questions
Ear Hustle has published 182 episodes since May 2017, covering topics in Documentary, Society & Culture.
Ear Hustle is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 41m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Ear Hustle, including email and social media links.
