Ear Hustle

On the Margins

A psychic. An RV park. A one-room post office. San Quentin's prison gets all the headlines, but just over the wall, there's a whole other world to explore.  This episode

CIW: The Magazine, Issue One

Rumors of a prison swimming pool, losing cherished memories to new technology, the right to housing in prison, and different ways of looking at a letter: Our first class

Ear Hustle Presents: The Science of Happiness

We're sharing an episode from another PRX podcast, The Science of Happiness, which explores what science can tell us about living a happier, more meaningful life.  We th

Revisiting "Last Memory: Linda"

Nigel reexamines the fourth episode in our Last Memory series, from December of 2024. Linda’s mom brought her to a Catholic Mass because she had a sense her daughter was

Behind the Scenes: “Bag of Skittles” and “Over and Over and Over and Over”

Could telling Sadiq and Demarion’s story actually make things worse between them? And were we right to be concerned that SQ's public information officer wouldn't sign off

Revisiting "Getting a Date"

Earlonne relistens to the final episode of Ear Hustle’s first season, about one official and one unofficial way to get out of prison.  Steve, Danny, Phillip, and Ron are

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 brough

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 adjust

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

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

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 n

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 relations

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

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

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 ag

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

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 pla

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 s

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 a

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.