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“Ear Hustle is about trying to not completely take the wall down, but to make it something you can see through and that you can connect through. And the idea that families were connecting through the stories we were telling ...  to me was the best compliment we could ever get.” 

-- Ear Hustle co-creator, co-producer and co-host Nigel Poor

In 2011, Nigel Poor began volunteering at San Quentin State Prison in California, where she met lifer Earlonne Woods. Six years later, they launched Ear Hustle, a groundbreaking podcast produced inside San Quentin about daily life there. In 2018, Woods sentence was commuted, in part, he says because of the podcast, and he walked out of San Quentin.

In a conversation with The Journalism School’s Prizes Department Executive Director Abi Wright and duPont Director Lisa R. Cohen, Poor and Woods discuss the challenges of producing long-form stories inside a prison, the humanity their work celebrates, and how the podcast got its unusual name. 

Before launching Ear Hustle, Poor spent years building trust with the prison administration and inmates, a process she described as “showing up and doing what you say you are going to do.” When the prison administration finally approved the project, both Poor and Woods had to grapple with the complexities of telling the stories of incarcerated people. 

Ear Hustle rarely mentions the inmates’ crimes, and avoids focusing on criminal justice policy. This is intentional, according to Poor. “We want to tell human stories,” she said. For the producers, this means staying in their storytelling lane, learning about the individuals in San Quentin, and leaving thorny issues and advocacy work to others. 

Listen to the Ear Hustle podcast series on Radiotopia here. Check out our newly announced 2022 duPont-Columbia Finalists here.