This is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods

I have mentioned the podcast Ear Hustle on this very blog so many times over the years. Nigel Poor is a visual artist who volunteered at the California prison San Quentin and she started a podcast with a prisoner named Earlonne Woods about life inside prison. When Woods was released from prison in 2018 after his sentenced was commuted, the podcast continued with a new inside prison host, Rahsaan "New York" Thomas (who was just released from prison after his sentence was commuted last month!).  The podcast is sometimes funny, sometimes scary, sometimes fascinating, but always interesting. Poor and Woods wrote a book called This is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life once Woods was out of prison.

The first part of the book is a memoir, in which Woods and Poor each tell their stories of how they got to San Quentin. Woods was a troubled teen (gah! what a phrase) who was sentenced to life in prison under California's three strikes law when he was arrested after an armed robbery that left him in the hospital with a gunshot wound and his best friend shot dead by police. Poor was a visual artist who was a volunteer teacher at San Quentin when she met Woods in the Media Lab at San Quentin. The second part of the book has lots of interviews from prisoners themselves, as well as those who have loved ones inside. It covers lots of material, from maintaining family and romantic relationships in prison to race relations. The third part of the book is all about how Woods got his sentence reduced and how the podcast dealt with the COVID pandemic since they couldn't get inside the prison due to its lockdown.

I listened to the audiobook because someone told me to (was it you? I didn't write it down) and I absolutely think that this should be listened to. There were times they used actual interviews from the podcast and while I think it would have been fine to read it as a transcript, it was really great to hear the voices. Also, I've been listening to Poor and Woods on the podcast for years now, so it seemed natural to me to listen to this one.

And it was pretty good.

I am a bit confused as to who the audience is for this book, though. As a podcast listener, there wasn't much new here. I'd already heard a lot of the interviews on the podcast. Sure, there was a bit more about the hosts' backgrounds and more about Woods' advocacy to repeal the three strikes law, but the second part of the podcast felt really familiar to me. If you aren't a listener to the podcast, though, I wonder if you'd be really confused by this book. Like, why would you care about Nigel Poor's background right away? Why would you want all the nitty gritty details about how Woods got the paperwork turned in for his commutation?  I mean, I think it's pretty interesting, but I'm not sure someone who didn't already have a parasocial relationship with them would think so. 

I definitely enjoyed my ten hours with the book. It felt like an extended Ear Hustle episode and I'm not mad about that.

4/5 stars