Ear Hustle & Radiotopia
Ear Hustle & Radiotopia
Ear Hustle & Radiotopia
Ear Hustle & Radiotopia

About

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.


  • What's Up, Michael Freeman?
    Facing the end of life at a prison hospice.
  • A Rock Across a Lake
    The many things you long for from prison and the compromises you’re willing to make.
  • Ear Hustle Extra: A Sneak Peek at "Cellies, with Commentary"
    Nigel and Earlonne look back at their first episode.
  • Bunkies
    Ear Hustle turns 100!
  • Shine Some Light
    A violent crime and its aftermath.
  • That World
    Five stories from the Central California Women’s Facility.
  • Do You Think There Are Ghosts Here?
    Three stories of the paranormal, from San Quentin and the California Institution for Women.
  • San Quentin: The Magazine
    Five stories from our new producing team inside San Quentin
  • Transitional
    Where you live when you’re fresh out of prison.
  • Once You're in the Ocean, You're Going Everywhere
    Older residents at a women’s prison grapple with their regrets and dreams for the future.
  • 12 Hours on the Yard
    Sunup to sundown on San Quentin Prison’s lower yard.
  • Ear Hustle Presents: Violation
    While we're at work on Season 12, we bring you an episode from one of our favorite new shows.
  • Ear Hustle Extra: Pride Month Special
    Stories about LGBTQ life behind bars.
  • Articles of Hustle
    Is there such a thing as a prison uniform? An Ear Hustle collab explores.
  • The Preacher
    How can you tell if someone’s really changed?
  • Abundant and Passionate Trash
    The Ear Hustle Trash Challenge
  • Catch a Kite 8
    Residents of the California Institution for Women answer listeners’ questions about life inside a women’s prison.
  • Do You Know Who I Am?
    A new law shakes things up for trans men and trans women in prison.
  • Saber-Toothed Cat
    What 46 years in prison will do to a man.
  • OGs Got Hella Tricks
    Change is hard.