Ear Hustle

Ear Hustle started inside San Quentin State Prison, co-created by Earlonne Woods, who was serving a sentence there, and Nigel Poor, who was volunteering as a photography instructor. The show tells stories about daily life behind bars -- not the dramatized version you see on TV, but the mundane reality of sharing a cell, cooking with a hot pot, missing your kids, and figuring out how to fill a 23-hour day. Woods was released from prison in 2018 after Governor Jerry Brown commuted his sentence, and the show expanded to include stories from the California Institution for Women and from people rebuilding their lives after release. Episodes run about 40 minutes and arrive biweekly. The production quality is exceptional for a show that began with limited resources, and it earned a spot on Radiotopia, one of the most respected podcast networks around. With 215 episodes, a 4.9-star rating from over 20,000 reviews, and multiple award nominations, Ear Hustle has become one of the highest-rated documentary podcasts on any platform. The conversations are honest and frequently funny in ways that catch you off guard. Recent episodes have covered reconnecting with incarcerated parents and navigating relationships across prison walls. It teaches you things about the American prison system that no news article can, because you hear it directly from the people living it.