Ear Hustle

The Loop Ep. 6: Make Your Partner Look Good

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Loop Ep. 5: Yes, And ...

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 pulle...

The Loop Ep. 4: Where’s the Conflict?

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ou...

The Loop Episode 3: No Violence

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At Crossroads, just three little letters — SMD — can spark some very big drama. This episode is all about conflict: watching it, responding to it,...

The Loop Ep. 2: Who What Where

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Loop Ep. 1: The Five Rules of Drama Club

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Starting Next Week: The Loop

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 jus...

Catch a Kite: On Tour

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 coll...

Ear Hustle Live! 2023

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Revisiting “Future on Ice”

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Revisiting our 2018 episode “Future on Ice,” about the lives of immigrants in San Quentin.Being an immigrant in an American prison can pose unique...

San Quentin: The Magazine, Issue 3

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The candy craze that’s sweeping the prison. What happens when your cellie dies? An update to our continuing coverage on jeans. And, why some people ...

Revisiting “12 Hours on the Yard”

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Cat Schuknecht, Ear Hustle’s Senior Producer at the California Institution for Women, listens back to our 2023 episode “12 Hours on the Yard.” I...

30 Days

11 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tam has been in prison for two decades, and is facing a third. But now, there’s a small chance a judge could send him home, time served. For one mon...

I See the Castle

28 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, Earlonne was drafted for a mysterious task: to pose for a photo with Nigel — wearing Minnie Mouse ears — while waving a fake “churro”...

Revisiting "Cracked Windshield"

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, Rahsaan revisits “Cracked Windshield,” an episode we did for the first anniversary. The Ear ...

No Other Word for It

14 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Women serving serious time for having killed someone while driving drunk form a distinct culture in prison, and often struggle to fit in. We visit two...

Bell Pepper

30 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s our first-ever listener-inspired “mystery” episode! This time, Nigel's in the dark — and Earlonne has a new co-host. They hope you enjoy ...

Why Doesn't Ear Hustle Talk About People's Crimes?

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listeners had a lot to say about two recent episodes featuring residents of California’s death row, especially “Different Sides of the Earth,” w...

Different Sides of the Earth

16 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty women are currently serving a death sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility. Like the men we met at San Quentin in our previous e...

Slam That Door

02 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

San Quentin's death row has been cleared out; soon it'll be renovated into an honor dorm. We make one last visit with four men who, between them, spen...

Super Fun Birthday Story

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For some, it’s a weeklong bonanza; others keep it on the down-low. Whether you’re in prison or not, how you celebrate your birthday says a lot abo...

Spark Plug

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Spark Plug wanted a life straight out of a Hollywood movie: Live fast and die a legend. But that’s not quite how things worked out. This episode was...

New Episodes Start Next Week!

26 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Ear Hustle team has been hard at work on a whole batch of new stories from San Quentin, the California Institution for Women, the Central Californ...

Revisiting “Camp Grace”

12 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Next up in our “sleeper hits” series, our editor Amy listens back to “Camp Grace,” a 2021 episode that she had started producing until she was...

From the Vault: Crew No. 7

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

California relies on incarcerated firefighters to fight fires like the ones that have engulfed Southern California this month. But once these men and ...

Revisiting “August 21, 1971”

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the next installment in our “sleeper hits” series, Earlonne listens back to the episode “August 21, 1971,” about George Jackson and one of ...

Last Memory: Linda

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Linda’s mom brought her to a Catholic Mass because she had a sense her daughter was on the verge of something, and needed help. Thirty-seven years i...

Last Memory: Leisha

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Leisha didn't plan on getting pregnant. And she certainly didn't plan on giving birth in prison. But on the day those two red lines showed up, Leisha ...

The Wrong Line of Business

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Earlonne's here with his "mystery" episode, and it's a doozy. He tells Nigel a redemption story wrapped in a drug-trafficking story, and, along the wa...

My Understanding of This Place: Nigel & Earlonne

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past two episodes we’ve been hearing about “memory places” at San Quentin: ordinary-seeming spots that become extraordinary through the...

My Understanding of This Place, Part 2

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the second part of this two-part series, Nigel reveals to Earlonne the final stops in her memory-tour of San Quentin, culminating in an exploration...

My Understanding of This Place, Part 1

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nigel — with help from our team inside San Quentin — has been cooking up an episode that her co-host knows nothing about. Without giving too much ...

Election!

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Incarcerated people in California can’t vote, but that doesn't mean they aren’t tracking electoral politics as closely as many of us on the outsid...

A Little Streets, a Little Romance, a Little Deception

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Wali was on his way to make a life-altering decision when a book made him reconsider. Shaka’s 40 years on death row were shaped by three books picke...

Comfortable Inside

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It can be hard to admit, but some people are more comfortable inside prison than out. We meet people who keep coming back and people who’ve stopped ...

Coming Up This Season 

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The countdown is on! Earlonne and Nigel give listeners a taste of what’s in store this season: some controversy, some mystery, and (maybe) some laug...

Ear Hustle Extra: San Quentin: The Magazine, Issue 2

21 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our team inside San Quentin explores the complicated acts of crying and Hula dancing in prison, reports on the joys and sorrows of a new prison clothi...

Ear Hustle Extra: Revisiting “This Place”

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrating our 100th episode last year got the Ear Hustle team thinking about all the stories we’ve told since 2017. Over the next few months, EHer...

Ear Hustle Presents: The Moth

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this collaboration with the venerable live-storytelling project The Moth, we share one man’s story about using a medical condition to break the i...

Ear Hustle Presents: You Didn’t See Nothin

26 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’re introducing you to one of our favorite recent podcast discoveries. In 1997, a racially motivated attack and its aftermath roiled Chicago. “Y...

Daughters

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What’s it like to serve out a prison sentence alongside your mom? At the Central California Women’s Facility, a handful of mom-daughter combos are...

Crocasacks

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When he was growing up, gang life gave Larry confidence, purpose, and an identity. But after years behind bars, the affiliation lost its luster. He te...

Catch a Kite Nationwide

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For our latest Catch a Kite episode, we’re taking advantage of a new tool: the electronic tablets that recently became available in 400+ jails and p...

Moms

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of Mother’s Day, some decidedly un-Hallmark-y stories about incarceration and motherhood. Thanks to Mary Behun, Reggie, and Kat for speaki...

Hope Lacquer

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Inside prison, as well as out, some of us cling to stuff and some of us let go. In this episode: two cell-block neighbors engage in a gentle dispute, ...

Five Mirrors

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Twelve years ago, Nigel asked San Quentin resident Greg Eskridge to write a list of everything he owned in prison. That much, Earlonne remembers. The ...

What's Up, Michael Freeman?

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A bucolic garden, six kinds of breakfast cereal, and around-the-clock bedside vigil: How one California prison is trying to mitigate the fears and unk...

A Rock Across a Lake

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve never based a whole episode on a poem before, but this one, by Sky, took us by surprise. It’s both a record of longing for all the things sh...

Ear Hustle Extra: A Sneak Peek at "Cellies, with Commentary"

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Season 13 is coming soon; in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of what’s going on in Ear Hustle Plus, our new subscription feed. In this excerpt, Nig...

Bunkies

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of our 100th episode (!), Ear Hustle revisits our very first one – “Cellies” – this time with a twist: Residents of the California In...

Shine Some Light

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When she was in her 20s, Shanna was the victim of a violent attack. Ten years later, she’s ready to talk about the experience and the “full-time j...

That World

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nigel and Earlonne visit the largest women's prison in the world, the Central California Women's Facility, and speak to five people about building a l...

Do You Think There Are Ghosts Here?

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Can a prison be haunted? And why are good ghost stories — inside or outside of prison — so hard to come by? The Ear Hustle team goes ghost hunting...

San Quentin: The Magazine

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If San Quentin were a magazine, what would it sound like? Ear Hustle’s new team inside – Sadiq, Steve, Tam, and the Two Tonys – delivers audio s...

Transitional

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Producer Rahsaan “New York” Thomas takes us inside the parole-ordered transitional housing he’s been living in since getting out of prison. For ...

Once You're in the Ocean, You're Going Everywhere

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prisons weren’t designed for older folks, and the California Institution for Women is no exception. Nigel and Earlonne pay a visit to CIW’s Senior...

12 Hours on the Yard

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by the classic This American Life episode “24 Hours at the Golden Apple,” the Ear Hustle team documents one day in the life of San Quenti...

Ear Hustle Presents: Violation

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s summertime! Which means the Ear Hustle team is off cooking up a new batch of stories for our next season — Season 12 — launching September ...

Ear Hustle Extra: Pride Month Special

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of Pride month, we’re serving up some of our best stories about the LGBTQ community inside prison, including: a love story set out on the y...

Articles of Hustle

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is there such a thing as a prison uniform? Turns out, it takes two podcasts to answer that question. Nigel and Earlonne team up with Avery Trufelman f...

The Preacher

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over at San Quentin, a new preacher has started drawing crowds on the yard. He’s charismatic, soft-spoken, and devout. He says he’s a different ma...

Abundant and Passionate Trash

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine you’re an archaeologist tasked with going through someone’s garbage. What will you learn about their habits and desires, their values, and...

Catch a Kite 8

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Can incarcerated women dye their hair? Do they have enough tampons and pads? What makes them happy, and how realistic is “Orange Is the New Black”...

Do You Know Who I Am?

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For years, we’ve asked incarcerated people to speculate on the difference between life inside a men’s prison and inside a women’s. Now we’re f...

Saber-Toothed Cat

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What’s the difference between an over-under and a lower-lower? How many pairs of underwear do you get in prison? And how long does a bar of soap las...

OGs Got Hella Tricks

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

San Quentin’s population is changing, and a lot of the old ways are dying out. But some prison OGs don’t want to let go of the past. Big thanks t...

Dream On

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When you’re incarcerated, are your dreams set outside prison walls? Or out on the prison yard? Are they a comforting space to escape to? Or a painfu...

Ear Hustle Extra: Welcome Home, New York

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After 22 years in prison, our inside colleague Rahsaan “New York” Thomas is now a free man. We meet him at the gates of San Quentin, and tag along...

Ear Hustle Extra: Sam Quentin

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lieutenant Sam Robinson has been with Ear Hustle since day one. As he retires from his post as Public Information Officer at San Quentin, we pay tribu...

Karen

14 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While she was in jail awaiting her sentence, Karen was housed with a pregnant cellie on the verge of giving birth. At the time, the experience barely ...

What’s Dangerous About Trees

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you have to serve prison time, Norway is the place to do it … at least that’s what we’d heard. Incarcerated people in Norway wear their own c...

Wishful Thinking

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Ear Hustle music episode returns! We catch up with some guys at San Quentin who are longing for love, and then, for the first time ever, we toss t...

Fences

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From 180s and 270s to “just one long-ass hallway,” different kinds of prison architecture leave different marks on the people who live there. In t...

Pockets

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Prisons are built with one thing in mind: surveillance. The architecture is designed to assert control and diminish privacy. But even in these spaces,...

Some Darkness and Some Light

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Stories from our first-ever international reporting trip! From the nightclubs of Oslo, to Norway’s first in-prison Pride parade, to an incarcerated ...

Actual/Factual

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sam Brown spent 24 years in prison not just denying his crime, but lying about it, over and over again. Finally, he decided to come clean. Would the p...

The Five Senses

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Life in prison can mess with your senses. There are smells you can’t unsmell, and sounds you long to hear. Some tastes you forget about entirely, an...

Ear Hustle Presents: Uncuffed

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A special episode from Uncuffed: During the COVID lockdown at San Quentin, Steve and Darren both got unexpected letters that changed their lives. Thi...

Ear Hustle Presents: My Mother Made Me

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Ear Hustle team is hard at work on our next season, which launches September 7! In the meantime, we’d like to tell you about a new podcast, host...

Last Memory: Ryan and Earlonne

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The jig was up for Ryan, so he told police he’d turn himself in. His mom had one request: a final family meal at Applebee’s. Plus, Earlonne and Ni...

Last Memory: Michael

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The day before committing the crime that sent him to prison, Michael stood in a parking lot in Bakersfield, California, and looked up at the sky. Twen...

Catch a Kite 7

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This season we're flipping the script on our traditional Catch a Kite episodes, exploring questions asked and answered between San Quentin State Priso...

What Is This?

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Life in prison, without regular sex and intimacy, can cause all sorts of emotional and physical issues. Yep, we're going there — to explore the impa...

Gabrieleen Silver Queen

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens to a prison town when its main prison closes? The residents of Susanville, in Northern California, are about to find out. Ear Hustle took...

Is Your Name Alfredo?

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Six massive murals span hundreds of feet across the walls of a San Quentin chow hall, depicting the history of California in epic scale and detail. Re...

Boots and Max

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We talk about love on Ear Hustle, plenty, but it’s hard to think of prison as a “romantic” place. What does dating look and feel like, on the in...

15 Minutes

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In California and many other states, calls from prison are limited to 15 minutes and are monitored, recorded, and often difficult to come by. But whet...

Ear Hustle Extra: Making Trouble

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes, when you’re up against a big state institution, you have to make some trouble. For this mini-episode, part of Radiotopia’s winter fundr...

Ear Hustle Extra: A Call from Sacramento

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’re between seasons but have an exciting update to share with listeners: Our friend and colleague Rahsaan “New York” Thomas’ prison sentence...

Ear Hustle Presents: Written Off

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While Ear Hustle works on its next season, which starts March 2, we wanted to introduce you to the podcast Written Off. It features formerly incarcera...

Camp Grace

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This past fall, we followed a group of kids into Salinas Valley State Prison to spend two days with their dads, whom they hadn’t seen in years. Thro...

Tray, Tumbler, Spork

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, some of the Ear Hustle team spent a month living under a specific set of constraints informed by the daily routines of our inside c...

Yard of Dreams

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sports in prison are more than just games. They can be an outlet for stress, the realization of dreams deferred, or a positive way to prove oneself to...

Counting Lines

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Going to prison in your home country can be disorienting enough. What about when you’re new to the culture, don’t speak the language, and are thou...

Taxx Is Tripping

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take to be bonnaroo in prison? We explore the creative ways people inside transform and beautify their physical selves and their living e...

Stormy Monday

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At Ear Hustle, we hear more from listeners about music than almost any other topic. In response, we bring you the Ear Hustle Mixtape, including storie...

Do It Movin’

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We bring you stories about the ups and downs of making bail and the bittersweet taste of freedom when you know you’re about to lose it. Plus: Nigel ...

August 21, 1971

08 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

August 21, 1971 was the deadliest day in San Quentin history, and it’s still a painful topic, both inside the prison and out. At the center of the s...

Coming Soon: 50 Years After George Jackson

25 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ear Hustle’s eighth season launches on September 8th with a dramatic account of one of the most notorious days in San Quentin’s history: August 21...

Ear Hustle Presents: Life Jolt

11 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With just a few weeks to go before Ear Hustle returns with Season 8, we wanted to introduce listeners to a new show that’s been in all of our headph...