Ear Hustle were looking forward to joining Podcast Day in London but they are happy to join us today at PODCAST DAY Online.
Nigel & Earlonne go on to discuss how Ear Hustle came into being; Earlonne was in prison and Nigel was volunteering in prison. Both creative in their outlooks when Nigel asked Earlonne to start a podcast his reaction was ‘Yes, even though I didn’t know what a podcast was.’
Ear Hustle went on to win a PRX Podquest competition, but, Julie could see the difficulty in making a podcast from a prison.
Nigel’s goal with the podcast was to document the small moments in prison that really built a picture of prison life.
‘I was working 24/7 keeping my eyes and ears open for stories, you know, Ear Hustle’, Earlonne.
The podcast became more and more successful, and it’s at this point that the press became involved in Earlonne’s story.
Nigel said that one of the common themes in the podcast is ‘the Work Around’. On Ear Hustle they constantly find workarounds, the team discussed what they did and how they did it.
When the prison went into lockdown is not a problem most or any podcasts have to deal with but Ear Hustle did and incorporated the situation and educated the listeners on this aspect of prison life.
The discussion on how to get creative with the stories is a master-class in how to create powerful content.
And what happens when the premise of the show, a host who is in prison, is released – what happened next? How did they deal with the life of a podcast outside of prison? A change of production ‘and opening up the show in new ways’ said Nigel.
They finally discussed how they have had to find their workarounds as Covid-19 hit. San Quentin is closed, so how can they ground the show? Earlonne said that the future is more stories from women and young people.
“We are at our best creatively, when we really don’t know what will happen”, Nigel.
The last word really has to go to Earlonne “If Nig and I hadn’t created Ear Hustle we might still have been inside, I think that is the ultimate workaround right there”.