Ear Hustle is prison slang for eavesdropping, and that’s what listening to the show feels like: a raw, often funny, and always surprising peek into the reality of life inside prison. Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods co-created the show that launched in 2017 while Earlonne was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, where Nigel was a volunteer teaching photography. Since Earlonne’s release in 2018, the show has expanded to include stories from prisons across the state, including the California Institution for Women, as well as stories about getting out of prison and starting over, post-incarceration. From finding romance, to grappling with a life sentence, to trying to parent via 15-minute phone calls, Ear Hustle stories deliver what This American Life host Ira Glass calls a “"very real” and “untragic” take on prison life. Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent listener-supported podcasts. Discover audio with vision at radiotopia.fm and learn more about Ear Hustle at earhustlesq.com.
Required Pod Score for this podcast. PitchCentric checks your profile against host openness, topical fit, and audience signals before you generate a pitch.
Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
36%
Guest openness
Selective
Sign up to generate a grounded pitch for Ear Hustle.
Signup to Generate a PitchEar Hustle is prison slang for eavesdropping, and that’s what listening to the show feels like: a raw, often funny, and always surprising peek into the reality of life inside prison. Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods co-created the show that launched in 2017 while Earlonne was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, where Nigel was a volunteer teaching photography.
Recent episodes include "Inside Music: The Takeover!" (28 October 2026, 39 minutes), "13 to 29" (14 October 2026, 49 minutes), and "An Announcement from Nigel and Earlonne" (7 October 2026, 5 minutes).
Ear Hustle publishes roughly every two weeks, with episodes averaging 41 minutes.
Booking probability for Ear Hustle is 36%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Ear Hustle requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. Ear Hustle's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for Ear Hustle are Courts, Police & Public Safety. Ear Hustle has a society audience.
Ear Hustle is a society podcast.
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Episode #5
Inside producers Tam and Sadiq take over the mic to introduce us to a (mostly) new crop of musicians heard out on the yard at San Quentin. And: some big news from an OG friend of the show. Subscribe to Ear Hustle Plus...
Episode #4
Jack spent 35 years in a security housing unit, aka "the hole," and he’s got some stories to tell. You can hear more about Jack's story on the PBS documentary The Strike . Subscribe to Ear Hustle Plus! Last week, Nigel...
Ear Hustle
E and Nyge would like a quick word. Sign up for Ear Hustle Plus at earhustlesq.com/plus . (Supercast subscribers: Keep an eye on your email for instructions on how to set up your new EH+ feed.) Ear Hustle is a proud...
Episode #3
We solicited questions about life in prison from audience members at our live shows. Then, we took those questions into a couple prisons we'd never been to before — Folsom State Prison in California, and SCI Chester in...
Episode #2
Two people are connected by a terrible crime, committed over 30 years ago. What do we owe the people we hurt, and how long does that debt endure? Subscribe to Ear Hustle Plus! In the feed this week: Earlonne and Nigel...
Episode #1
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 was scored with music by Antwan Williams, David...
Ear Hustle
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 of storytellers at the California Institution for...
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 think Ear Hustle listeners might be especially...
Ear Hustle
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 on the verge of something, and needed help...
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 on a story about penis modification? For our...
Ear Hustle
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 all trying to make their way out of prison. In our...
Episode #8
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 brought them together, Demarion faced an agonizing...
Episode #7
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 adjusting to prison life. Nigel and Earlonne pay a...
Episode #6
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 California body,” explained. This episode was...
Episode #5
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, Ralph, Carlos, Michael, and Rocky for speaking to...
Episode #4
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 now-shuttered death row. Big thanks to everyone...
Episode #3
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 relationship. But a few things stand in the way. This...
Episode #2
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 the time, the feedback is positive — but not...
Episode #1
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 them on Ear Hustle. In this episode, Earlonne and...
Episode #10
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 aging and death is never easy. But in prison, these...
Recent guests on Ear Hustle. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
Director of Building & Security Operations, Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out (VHV)
founder of the OWASP Top Ten for Large Language Model Applications, Bethlehem Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
Vice President and Professor of Old Testament, New Schools Center for Global Mental Health
activist, icon, revolutionary, Marine Toys for Tots Foundation
PitchCentric classifies Ear Hustle under these industries. Guests from them are the closest fit, and each links to the best podcasts in that industry.
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
Is this podcast yours and you'd like to remove or correct details? Request removal or email privacy@pitchcentric.com.
Questions about the free trial? See the pricing FAQ
