‘Ear Hustle’ podcast got host pardoned. See a live show in Los Angeles

When then Gov. Jerry Brown’s team spoke to Earlonne Woods to tell him his life sentence was being commuted after spending 21 years in prison, in the background of the call he heard staff yell out, “We love ‘Ear Hustle!’ ”

That would be Woods’ podcast, the first produced in prison. “Ear Hustle” began in 2017, a year before the life-changing call. Co-creators and hosts Woods and Nigel Poor, who taught visual arts at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, met at the prison’s media center. Over time, the podcast’s reach grew and Woods was pardoned by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024.

“The idea was to tell everyday stories of life inside that didn’t talk about violence, didn’t talk about how people got to prison, didn’t necessarily talk about the system, how we felt about it, but what happens when you need to make a life in prison,” Poor said.

Not only has “Ear Hustle” changed Woods’ trajectory, but it’s also sparked a movement. Dozens of podcasts have since sprung up at prisons around the country and internationally. Since his release, Woods, 54, and Poor, 62, have visited prisons across California to train incarcerated people in podcasting. They’ve even heard of “Ear Hustle” — which means to eavesdrop — listening and discussion clubs in an Arkansas prison. The podcast, which has roughly 88 million downloads and is featured on major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020.

Earlonne Woods records for the “Ear Hustle” podcast at KQED in San Francisco.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

“Our dream was only to air inside of San Quentin, and then our bigger dream was the 35 prisons,” Woods said. “Since then, we are heard in over 1,500 jails and prisons across the nation. We’re heard in 112 prisons in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.”

Now, the “Ear Hustle” team, who work out of the KQED office in San Francisco, is about to go on a third tour. The team is hitting venues in West Coast cities such as Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles and visiting a prison near each of those stops. It is the first to bring a podcast tour to prisons. During its L.A. visit in February, Woods and Poor will be hosting the show at the vibey Lodge Room in Highland Park, as well as the California Institution for Women in Chino.

“Ear Hustle” episodes cover a variety of topics including how cellmates get along, taking care of pets in prison, being a parent in prison, cooking in a cell, the role mail plays and the lingering impact of three strikes laws. The L.A. stop, a homecoming for Woods, who grew up in South-Central Los Angeles, will feature popular clips and never-before-heard snippets. There will also be music, dance performances and a book signing of “This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life.”

“I understand that a lot of currently incarcerated people are watching me, so I go into the prisons for work, of course, but as more of an inspiration, because they see me, they’re like, ‘Oh, man, look he is coming back in, he is doing his thing,’ ” Woods said.

When Woods was still at San Quentin, a commissioner from a prison in Indiana met with the “Ear Hustle” team to get advice about how they could start a prison podcast in their state.

Former “Ear Hustle” producer Julie Shapiro’s son, Phin Shapiro, holds up a sign congratulating the team for being a Pulitzer Prize finalist, as seen at the podcast’s studio.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

“The commissioner came and told us straight up, ‘If the incarcerated people in my prison would have ever sent me a request to do a podcast in the prison, I would have balled it up and threw it in the trash, but listening to your stories made me really consider that,’ because it gave them a different outlook on the people that they serve,” Woods said.

When they were first developing the podcast at San Quentin, Woods and Poor said it required some cooperation with prison administration. Poor said she had to earn their trust because she was getting audio from inside the prison and sending it out to the Bay Area KALW radio station for three- to five-minute segments.

After Woods’ release, “Ear Hustle” was able to evolve. Woods always knew he wanted to help bring a similar storytelling to women’s prisons — now he does. He and Poor have taught podcasting classes at the California Institution for Women, just as they do at men’s prisons.

“Uncuffed,” another podcast in California prisons, which launched in 2019, has aired more than 200 stories. It reports that released podcast participants had a zero percent return rate, and alumni have gone on to become professional podcasters and documentary filmmakers. It also teaches participants how to become radio DJs. In 2021, Inside Wire in Colorado became the first radio station in the world to broadcast 24/7 from inside prisons to the public. “Concrete Mama,” which started in a Washington state prison early last year, calls itself “more than a podcast — it’s a movement.”

“Everybody is human,” Woods said. “People make bad decisions, and sometimes those bad decisions give you life sentences, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t contribute to society, because everybody learns from their bad decisions. Prison is a microcosm of society. Everything that goes on in society pretty much goes on inside prison. I definitely think that we are shining a great light on that.”