The ‘Ear Hustle’ podcast got its host fired. See a live show in Los Angeles

Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown’s team is talking to Earlonne Woods and telling him that his life sentence is being commuted after spending 21 years in prison, after the phone call he heard the staff yelling, “We love ‘Ear Hustle!’ “

That would be Woods’ podcast, the first produced in prison. “Ear Hustle” started in 2017, a year before the life-changing phone call. Creators and curators Woods and Nigel Poor, who taught art at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, met in 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 don’t talk about violence, that don’t talk about how people got to prison, it wasn’t about the system, how we feel about it, but what happens when you need to live in prison,” said Poor.

Not only did “Ear Hustle” change Woods’ style, but it also sparked a movement. Dozens of podcasts have already appeared in prisons across the country and around the world. Since their release, Woods, 54, and Poor, 62, have visited prisons across California to train inmates on podcasting. They’ve also heard of the “Ear Hustle” – which means listening – listening and chat clubs in Arkansas prisons. The podcast, which has approximately 88 million downloads and is featured on major platforms, includes Spotify, Apple Podcasts again Amazon Musicthen a 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

“Our dream was to play inside San Quentin, and our biggest dream would be 35 prisons,” Woods said. Since then, we are heard in more than 1,500 prisons and jails across the country. We are heard in 112 prisons in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.”

Now, the “Ear Hustle” team, which operates out of KQED’s San Francisco office, is about to embark on a third tour. The group hits West Coast cities like Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles and visits a prison near each of those stops. The first is to bring podcast tours to prisons. During their LA tour in February, Woods and Poor will be hosting shows at the vibey Lodge Room in Highland Park, and at the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Episodes of “Ear Hustle” cover a variety of topics including how inmates get along, caring for pets in prison, parenting in prison, cooking in prison, the role of mail and the continuing impact of the three strikes law. The LA stop, home to Woods, who grew up in South-Central Los Angeles, will feature iconic clips and never-before-seen clips. There will also be music, dancing and a book signing of “This Is Ear Hustle: Untold Stories of Daily Prison Life.”

“I understand that a lot of people who are incarcerated right now are looking at me, so I’m going into prisons for work, of course, but as an extra, because they see me, they’re like, ‘Oh, man, look he’s back in, he’s doing his thing,'” Woods said.

While Woods was in San Quentin, a commissioner from an Indiana prison met with the “Ear Hustle” team to get advice on how to start a prison podcast in their state.

Former “Ear Hustle” producer Julie Shapiro’s son, Phin Shapiro, holds up a pole congratulating the group on being a Pulitzer Prize finalist, as seen in the podcast studio.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

“The commissioner came and told us directly, ‘If the people incarcerated in my prison had ever sent me a request to do a podcast in the prison, I would have thrown it in the trash, but listening to your stories made me think about that,’ because it gave them a different perspective on the people they serve,” said Woods.

When they started developing the podcast at San Quentin, Woods and Poor said it needed some cooperation with the prison administration. Poor said they should have trusted him because he was receiving audio from inside the jail and sending it to KALW radio station in the Bay Area for three to five minutes.

After Woods’ release, “Ear Hustle” was able to appear. Woods always knew she wanted to help bring the same story to women’s prisons — and now she’s doing it. He and Poor have taught podcasting classes at the California Institution for Women, just as they do at men’s prisons.

“He was not arrested,” another podcast on California prisons, launched in 2019, has broadcast more than 200 stories. It reports that released podcast participants have a 0 percent return rate, and alumni have gone on to become professional podcasters and filmmakers. It also teaches participants how to become radio DJs. In 2021, Inside the Wire in Colorado became the first radio station in the world to broadcast 24/7 from inside prisons to the public. “Mother is concrete,” which started in a Washington state prison early last year, calls itself “more than a podcast — it’s a movement.”

“Everybody’s human,” Woods said. “People make bad decisions, and sometimes those bad decisions get you life in prison, but it doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to society, because everyone learns from their bad decisions. Prison is a microcosm of society. Everything that happens in society goes on inside prison. I really think we’re shining a big light on that.”