Ear Hustle launched in 2017 as the first podcast created and produced in prison — featuring stories of the daily realities of life inside California’s San Quentin State Prison, shared by those living it. Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods launched the podcast when Earlonne was incarcerated at San Quentin. In 2018, Earlonne's sentence was commuted and he was released. Just last year, he received a pardon. 

Ear Hustle has expanded to include voices and stories from other prisons, including two women’s prisons, as well as stories about what it’s like to get out and start over again on the outside. Ear Hustle stories are raw, often hilarious, and rarely what you’d expect to hear on a show about prison life. 

In 2020, Ear Hustle was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting — the first time the category was recognized — for bringing audiences “a consistently surprising and beautifully crafted series on life behind bars.” In 2021, Ear Hustle received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “shattering the myths about serving time and what happens afterwards.” In 2024, Ear Hustle won the Best Audio Documentary award from the International Documentary Association. 

Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.