For the final episode of our all-NYC series, we take the train uptown to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, where a group of incarcerated dads from Rikers Island are playing games, eating lunch, a...
Kaysha is in her early 20s: low on resources, but big on dreams. Sometimes, those dreams feel tantalizingly close to reality; other times, she's pulled back into a life she badly wants to leave beh...
Boys at Crossroads outnumber girls 10 to one, but if you ask staff about who’s harder to work with, it’s the girls, hands down. To find out for ourselves and learn more about life on the girls’ hal...
At Crossroads, just three little letters — SMD — can spark some very big drama. This episode is all about conflict: watching it, responding to it, and getting it started. Keys fly, milk is thrown, ...
Nigel and Earlonne get a peek inside one of Crossroad’s residential halls, and hear from kids and staff about what it’s like to live and work here. Along the way, they cause some drama of their own...
In the first episode of Ear Hustle’s all-new, all-New-York series, Nigel and Earlonne head to Brooklyn to hang out with incarcerated kids and staff at the Crossroads Juvenile Center. For Earlo...
Next week we’re dropping the first episode of our six-part series about kids who are involved, one way or another, in New York City’s criminal justice system, and an innovative program that’s teach...
What textures do you miss in prison? How is menopause handled behind bars? What makes you feel dignified? These are just some of the questions we collected from listeners on our live tour this summ...
At the end of 2023, Ear Hustle embarked on its first live tour — a celebration of our 100th episode. Nigel and Earlonne shared favorite moments from the show’s history, and a few of our talented fr...
Revisiting our 2018 episode “Future on Ice,” about the lives of immigrants in San Quentin.Being an immigrant in an American prison can pose unique challenges, like deciding which racial group you’l...
The candy craze that’s sweeping the prison. What happens when your cellie dies? An update to our continuing coverage on jeans. And, why some people like sharing a cell. Four stories from our inside...
Cat Schuknecht, Ear Hustle’s Senior Producer at the California Institution for Women, listens back to our 2023 episode “12 Hours on the Yard.” Inspired by the classic This American Life episode “24...
Tam has been in prison for two decades, and is facing a third. But now, there’s a small chance a judge could send him home, time served. For one month, we follow Ear Hustle’s inside producer as he ...
Recently, Earlonne was drafted for a mysterious task: to pose for a photo with Nigel — wearing Minnie Mouse ears — while waving a fake “churro” in the air. (Earlonne, always a good sport, didn’t as...
For the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, Rahsaan revisits “Cracked Windshield,” an episode we did for the first anniversary. The Ear Hustle team and friends talk about their first intera...
Women serving serious time for having killed someone while driving drunk form a distinct culture in prison, and often struggle to fit in. We visit two California prisons to meet women who are still...
It’s our first-ever listener-inspired “mystery” episode! This time, Nigel's in the dark — and Earlonne has a new co-host. They hope you enjoy this cutting-edge, occasionally unruly Ear Hustle episo...
Listeners had a lot to say about two recent episodes featuring residents of California’s death row, especially “Different Sides of the Earth,” which focused on condemned women. “It was hard to hear...
Twenty women are currently serving a death sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility. Like the men we met at San Quentin in our previous episode, these women are now living with the mainl...
San Quentin's death row has been cleared out; soon it'll be renovated into an honor dorm. We make one last visit with four men who, between them, spent over 130 years on the row. We see the solitar...
