A lot of people tend to have misconceptions when it comes to prison and what really goes on inside most penitaries. That’s where Earlonne Woods, Antwan Williams, and Nigel Poor come in to help clear up those misconceptions and bring you the truth of what happens behind bars with a podcast called Ear Hustle. Ear Hustle brings you the stories of life in prison, shared and produced by those currently living it.

While the stories that are recounted and shared in this podcast are told by many of the inmates currently present in San Quentin State Prison, there are four people who help to make Ear Hustle possible and that’s co-creators, co-producers, and co-hosts Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor, co-creator, co-producer, and sound designer Antwan Williams, along with Public Information Officer Lieutenant Sam Robinson.

Ear Hustle is the partnership between Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams who are both incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, and Nigel Poor, who is a local Bay Area artist. Earlonne Woods is currently serving 31 years-to-life for attempted second-degree robbery while Antwan Williams has been incarcerated since the age of 18 and is serving a 15-year sentence for an armed robbery with a gun enhancement. Nigel Poor is a visual artist who got involved with the San Quentin State Prison as a volunteer teacher for the Prison University Project. Though it’s not heavily censored, the podcast still has to be overseen and approved by the prison administration, which is why at the end of every episode, Lieutenant Sam Robinson chimes in with, "This is Lt. Sam Robinson and I approve this story."

The team gets together to work in San Quentin's media lab and together, they produce their stories. Sprinkled with a bit of humor and always layered with truths, Ear Hustle has really become popular since it was first released.

Here is a quick preview of what Ear Hustle is generally about and who the main speakers are.

In the first episode of their podcast, Earlonne dives into the realm of cellmates or “cellies”. Unlike in college or in the outside world, you don’t get to choose who you end up spending the most or the rest of your life with. In prison, you’re usually stuck with whomever the guards feel would be right with you and you just have to deal with that.

This isn’t the first time that San Quentin has done something like this to help society and the public to better understand and connect with incarcerated members of their prison. SQ also has their own newspaper that has been in the works for almost 100 hundred years and before they had their own podcast, Williams, Woods, and Poor got their start by audio producing the “San Quentin Prison Report” for the local radio station KALW.

I think what I love the most about this project is how genuine and real it is. I love they don’t just focus on the nitty-gritty and raw aspects of life in prison, you know, it’s not just about how terrible their lives are now that they’re stuck with life-sentences or how badly they’re treated by the guards and their fellow prison mates. No, they talk about a variety of subjects ranging from

Also, the fact that they’re doing all this with such limited resources, such as no internet access or telephones, and yet, they’ve been able to do so well with so little and they’ve gained interest from so many listeners. They actually exceeded 1.5 million listeners in only their first month and Ear Hustle was actually the winner of Radiotopia’s Podquest contest back in 2016 after they were chosen from more than 1,500 other international entries.

According to their website, Ear Hustle was initially created and has currently been produced as a labor of love, so currently they’re not earning any money from this, but they do accept sponsorships and donations which help to invest in the project and cover the costs of production, music, design, visuals, etc. But what matters most to Earlonne and Antwan is that they’re learning important and viable life skills that will definitely help them out later in life and when they’re out of prison eventually.

If you want to listen and subscribe to Ear Hustle, there’s currently one season out with six episodes so far. There will be a total of ten episodes and they are uploaded bi-weekly. According to their website, the second season will likely be launched in the spring of 2018. You can listen to all of the episodes for free on their website.