Ear Hustle

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 episode, these women are now living with the mainline prison population. For some, it hasn’t been an easy change. 

This episode was scored with music by Antwan Williams, David Jassy, Earlonne Woods, and Derrell Sadiq Davis.

Big thanks to Warden Andes and Lt. Berry ...

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, spent over 130 years on the row. We see the solitary cells where they spent decades of their lives, and hear what it's been like to leave those cells and join the "mainline" prison population.

This episode was scored with music by Antwan "Banks" Williams, David Jassy, Earl...

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 about who you are.

The New Official Ear Hustle Birthday Song was written by Tam Nguyen, with variations on the theme by Tam Nguyen, Earlonne Woods, Derrell Sadiq Davis, Bruce Wallace, and Antwan Williams, plus trumpet playing by Brian Conroy. 

Big thanks to Warden Andes and Lt...

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 scored with music by David Jassy, Earlonne Woods, Antwan Williams, and Derrell Sadiq Davis.

Big thanks to Warden Andes and Lt. Berry at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center; Acting Warden Parker, Associate Warden Lewis, and Lt. Newborg at the California Institutio...

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 California Women’s Facility, and beyond. They’ll be in your feed starting next Wednesday, March 5 — but Nigel and Earlonne are here now with a little sneak peek. 

Big thanks to Warden Andes and Lt. Berry at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center; Acting Warden Parker, Associate War...

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 sidelined by COVID. In it, we follow a group of kids to Salinas Valley State Prison to spend two days with their dads, whom they hadn’t seen in years. Through music, crafts, and games, the idea behind Camp Grace is to put aside prison personas and reconnect with fatherhood. But rela...

California relies on incarcerated firefighters to fight fires like the ones that have engulfed Southern California this month. But once these men and women are released from prison, they can have a hard time finding jobs on civilian firefighting crews. Back in 2020, Nigel and Earlonne spent time at a Ventura fire camp designed to help bridge that gap. In light of the recent fires, we’re sharing this episode again.

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In the next installment in our “sleeper hits” series, Earlonne listens back to the episode “August 21, 1971,” about George Jackson and one of the most significant days in San Quentin’s history. E talks about why this was an essential story for Ear Hustle to tell, why it was a tricky one to tackle, and reflects on his personal connections to this history and its long aftermath. 

Mentioned in the episode: 

Episode 61: ...

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 into her prison sentence, Linda wonders what would have happened if she had listened to her mom, and Nigel and Earlonne visit the same chapel to see the place through Linda’s memory. 

This episode was scored with music by Derrell Sadiq Davis, Antwan Williams, Fernando Arruda, Dav...

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 found kindness in an unexpected place.

Thanks to Katie Turner and Samantha Bhatia at Poetic Justice for connecting us with Leisha. 

This episode was scored with music by Darrell Sadiq Davis, Antwan Williams, Fernando Arruda, David Jassy, and Earlonne Woods.
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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 way, dives deep into several subjects we swore we'd never touch. Buckle up. 

Thanks to George for telling his story. He co-authored a book about moving past gangs and criminal thinking; you can find that here. Thanks also to Tanaya for the rap and listener alert, and to everyone...

Over the past two episodes we’ve been hearing about “memory places” at San Quentin: ordinary-seeming spots that become extraordinary through the eyes of people who spent time there. In this extra mini-ep, Nigel and Earlonne take us to their spots, and down Ear Hustle memory lane.   

This episode was scored with music by Earlonne Woods, Antwan Williams, and Derrell Sadiq Davis.

Big thanks to Acting Warden Ande...

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 of the prison’s former death row. 

Thanks to Shaka for speaking with us for this episode. 

Special thanks to Lt. Guim'Mara Berry for letting Nigel and our inside team explore and record inside East Block. 

This episode was scored with music by Earlonne W...

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 away, we can tell you that it involves visiting a part of the prison no one on Ear Hustle had seen before … with, of course, a few detours along the way. Part 1 of a two-part series.  

Special thanks to Lt. Guim'Mara Berry for letting Nigel and our inside team explore and ...

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 outside are. In this episode, Ear Hustle’s inside team reveals the winner of its San Quentin presidential poll, while the outside team travels to the Central California Women’s Facility to see how people there would vote, if they had the opportunity.   

You can find information ...

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 picked out for him by a prison librarian. At three California prisons, books and libraries are thriving.

Thank you to everyone who talked to us about books for this episode, including: Lanika, Wendy, Tameka, Latoya, Erica, Amy Lynn, Elizabeth, Mariam, Rosa, Mei, Lori Ann, Cha...

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 trying to go home, and ask: Is being “OK” inside prison a failure? Or just healthy adaptation?

Thank you to Reese and Jody at the Central California Women’s Facility, and Vincent, Steve, Cowboy, Kelton, Arendt, Patrick, Robert, and everyone else we spoke to out on the ya...

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 clothing policy, pilots a new podcast, and sits down in a gazebo with a surprise guest. It’s a new issue of San Quentin: The Magazine.

You can find the first issue of San Quentin: The Magazine here. 

This episode was scored with music by Derrell Sadiq Davis, Antwan “...