Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor

Photo credit: Francesca Leonardi

Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor are the hosts of Ear Hustle. Follow Earlonne on Twitter here. Follow Ear Hustle on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Do you have any interesting stories about your fans? 
Earlonne: Oooh. I find them very empathetic to my plight, such as: I can just put out a PSA like Hey, I’m looking for a beach house for my birthday! And I get so many different offers from a gang of different listeners, like Hey I got a condo over here, or Hey I got Big Bear, so for my birthday a couple of years ago I had Big Bear for about a week. Individuals look past a person’s past and look at a person for today, so I appreciate that about our listeners. I don’t like to say fans, I say listeners. Seems like we hella celebrities and shit, my friends always remind me, we’re Z-list celebrities. 

Which episode was the most difficult to make? 
Nigel: Sorry Means Nothing, about people who have committed what are called sex crimes — in this case, with children. It’s a topic that very few people want to think about, and even very thoughtful, empathetic people shut down when that subject comes up. To figure out how to tell that story, and talk about really uncomfortable things, while making a story that people wouldn’t just turn off immediately, that was challenging. And to really examine our own feelings about that subject, and do it as fairly as we do any other story — to let people tell their stories and have them not feel judged — that was tough. 

How have you changed as people and podcasters since you started working together? 
Nigel: Well, I learned how to become a podcaster, learned how to collaborate (because for 30 years I had a solo studio practice), learned how to rely on others, learned how to have fun while working with others, and it has opened up all kinds of adventures for me and E to have together. 

How do you approach incarcerated people? Are they hesitant to tell their stories? 
Earlonne: When I was inside, it was pretty easy. In the beginning people were skeptical of what we were doing, but when the word got out, through their family, like Have you heard of Ear Hustle, it became easier. But you still have people who are skeptical of talking with us, and it's for no other reason that some people don’t talk to the media. But I just tap in with people, like Man, let’s talk about a story, what story you got to talk about. I might overhear something and approach a person after the fact. I definitely ask them and if I feel like I really really really want them, then I’ll be like, Look bro, don’t continue to be a statistic, people listen to what we do! To me, the biggest issue is convincing people who have been locked up for 30+ years to get involved — dudes that have been there since the ’70s, because they have a strict “we don’t talk to the media.” 

How has Ear Hustle changed since the idea was born? 
Nigel: Very little. Well, not in the intent. It’s changed in that the team is much bigger, we have a larger audience … but the idea behind it, I could pull out the page we wrote on October 5, 2015, when Earlonne and I sat down to hatch this idea — and what we dreamed of creating is what Ear Hustle has become. We decided we wanted to create a podcast where we would be the co-hosts and the people who escorted listeners through the story, that inside and outside perspectives were really important, that we were gonna tell everyday stories, first-person narratives, and we were gonna mix emotions together. So all the main ingredients are shockingly the same, we had a clear idea of what we wanted to do. The main thing that has changed is that Earlonne is out of prison — that’s a big difference. And the team has gotten bigger, and we travel more, and we have a life outside San Quentin (whereas at first, our idea was that the show would always be set in San Quentin). The concept has remained pretty steady, which makes me happy. 

Earlonne: We’ve added an outside component — a formerly incarcerated component — we’ve added more women into the mix, we travel a lot more to go into other prisons, so it has changed tremendously since the inception. We probably get less media attention, less interviews — when we first started, we had the Today show, all of them. I think the basic concept is still the same — we want to share important components of people’s lives — the formula is still the same. 

If you were going to start another podcast — don’t worry about whether anyone would like it or any of the logistics — what would it be? 
Nigel: It would be a podcast about my parents, based on the photo challenge I do with them on Instagram [@nigelpoor]. Every day (we recently hit day 500), I send my parents a challenge to answer photographically, and they send me back a photograph along with a brief written response. It’s really allowed them to exist in my world as something far beyond being parents. It’s a project that explores the relationships between adult children and their parents; it’s also about aging, where we find worth, who we give a voice to, as well as exploring how and if we allow older people to be three-dimensional, funny, smart, sad, all of the things that people are. Although it’s about my parents, it's about more universal questions and what types of relationships we have with our parents, and can we treat them with as much care and curiosity as we treat other people. I realize that I ask strangers questions all the time, but I don’t give my parents the same consideration. 

What’s a podcast you love that not enough people know about? 
Nigel: I’m going to say Futile Attempts by Kim Noble. Everyone I’ve recommended it to hates it. I love it. He has my kind of sense of humor, which is observing how people act — it’s very dark and odd. He’s a comedian, he talks a lot about his life and the things he’s struggling with, but he observes human nature, people’s foibles, and his own foibles. Some of the things he does are incredibly embarrassing, but they’re psychologically incredibly astute. I want to meet somebody who likes this podcast … but I have yet to meet that person. 

Earlonne: I’m gonna add one: Wrongful Conviction by Jason Flom. It’s a very interesting take on the criminal justice system, people that have been wrongly convicted and are on death row, and watching how they assemble celebrities and people in society to get involved in stopping executions of people who are clearly innocent. It’s a great podcast that I think people maybe don’t listen to. 

Thanks, Earlonne and Nigel!