{"id":166,"date":"2019-10-07T16:16:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T23:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/?p=166"},"modified":"2020-10-10T17:21:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T00:21:28","slug":"ear-hustle-welcome-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/2019\/10\/07\/ear-hustle-welcome-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Ear Hustle: Welcome to Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The podcast Ear Hustle<\/em>, named after a prison slang term for being nosy, eavesdropping, and hearing things you shouldn\u2019t, takes you inside the San Quentin State Prison and provides a look into the daily realities of life as an inmate. Hosted and produced by visual artist Nigel Poor, and inmate Earlonne Woods, the entirety of the podcast takes place within the media lab of the San Quentin State Prison. Nigel is said to give the podcast a “softer touch” while Earlonne, who at the time was serving a 31-year-to-life sentence (since commuted), dives into the hard knocks details. The team also consists of sound designer Antwan Williams, who is serving his 15 year sentence, and Lieutenant Sam Robertson, the San Quentin Public Information Officer, who must approve every episode before it is released. As interesting as it is, creating a podcast in a prison proves quite challenging as the team has limited hours they can work and visit, no internet access, they cannot talk to each other on the phone, and as you can imagine, prison is never quiet. As they tackle a different topic every episode, the podcast as a whole sheds light on the misconceptions and unknowns of the American prison system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tThe podcast is a culmination of interviews, commentary and conversations guided by Earlonne and Nigel, with the occasional banter and talk in the prison picked up by microphones. The aforementioned audio types work in the podcast’s favor as the variation is more engaging for the listener, than if they only used one static method. Earlonne and Nigel sit down with current inmates as well as those on the outside who are trying to reintegrate themselves into society post-incarceration. Together they rehash their most jarring and unforgettable experiences. This can be a big listener attraction as most people are drawn to the outrageous and unimaginable. Consciously or not, it is an attention grabber–and the majority of aspects regarding the American prison system are quite outrages: the crimes committed that resulted in incarceration, sexuality, gang ties, violence, corruption, death row. Taboo topics that are normally brushed under the rug are exposed and discussed in great detail in this podcast.  In the first episode, \u201cCellies,\u201d fellow San Quentin inmate Ron Self shared his rather rough experience with the first cellmate he ever had. Antwan increases the dramatic effect by his strategic use of music and sound effects to aid Ron in his storytelling. When Ron was simply setting the scene, there was no music, but before he divulged the most fascinating details, there was a pause and dramatic music faded in. Once he started describing how vindictive his cellie was, ominous music played in the background. Ron said he slept with his back to the wall and one eye open, and the music portrayed how uncomfortable and unsafe the situation was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common theme that can be seen throughout all the episodes and ultimately links them all together is the harsh realities of the prison system. People in prison are often stripped of their individuality and humanity and left for a number. There are certain elements (that are discussed throughout the seasons) within the prison system that perpetuate a cycle of violence and poor behavior. Thus the idea of justice and to what extent one should be punished runs through listeners\u2019 heads while they try to digest what they are hearing. Some might deduce from this podcast treatment of prisoners constitutes as abuse; inhumane. Others would say they deserve it. They committed a crime, did a bad thing, and now they are paying the price. Can there be balance in prison? Should there be? This battle of morality is what keeps listeners coming back. 
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Word Count: 616<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The podcast Ear Hustle, named after a prison slang term for being nosy, eavesdropping, and hearing things you shouldn\u2019t, takes you inside the San Quentin State Prison and provides a look into the daily realities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-engl200c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}