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A new season of the award–winning Radiotopia podcast Ear Hustle begins this week, with stories of the daily realities of life in prison and post-incarceration

March 1, 2022––This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life––the book co-authored by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods, who are also the co-hosts and creators of the Ear Hustle podcast, part of Radiotopia from PRX––was today named the 2022 selection for San Francisco Public Library’s One City One Book: San Francisco Reads citywide reading program.

In fall 2022, the paperback edition of This Is Ear Hustle, published by Crown/Random House, will be the focal point for One City One Book reading groups in addition to events held throughout the City, to be announced later this year. One City One Book: San Francisco Reads is a citywide literary event encouraging members of the City’s community to read the same book at the same time. By building bridges between communities and generations, the hope is to help make reading a lifelong pursuit and to build a more literate society. The program is also supported by many bookstore partners, program partners, and media. Past selections include works by Chanel Miller, Tommy Orange, Dave Eggers, Rebecca Solnit, Thi Bui, Mary Roach, and Luis Alberto Urrea.

“We are eager to convene passionate and engaged readers of all ages in San Francisco, and the Bay Area, around this exceptional book, which illuminates the humanity of our incarcerated community. SFPL is proud to serve these individuals through our Jails and Reentry Services program. With empathy and informed discourse, we can together move forward in better understanding and supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people,” said City Librarian Michael Lambert.

Readers across San Francisco are encouraged to check out This Is Ear Hustle at their local library, purchase a copy through the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library online bookstore or at an independent bookstore, and listen to the many compelling stories relayed in the Ear Hustle podcast.

“We’re thrilled that This Is Ear Hustle will be read by the city of San Francisco this year, a home base for us in the Bay Area. This means a lot. Thank you to the San Francisco Public Library for their partnership to help us bring our stories to audiences in new ways,” said Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods, co-hosts and co-creators of Ear Hustle. “We’re also excited to be back with a meaningful new season of stories that we think listeners will love. We look forward to sharing them.”

The award-winning podcast Ear Hustle launches a new season (season 9) on Wednesday, March 2, as part of the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX. New episodes will be released every other Wednesday. A two-time Peabody Award nominee and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Ear Hustle launched in 2017 as the first podcast created and produced in prison, at California’s San Quentin State Prison. Today, the show brings listeners stories of the realities of life inside, as well as outside, post-incarceration.

This week’s episode will focus on 15-minute phone calls, as calls from San Quentin and many other prisons around the country are limited to 15 minutes. For many incarcerated people and their loved ones on the outside, these calls are the main way to stay connected, share good and bad news, and have hard conversations. Audiences will hear a series of short stories about relationships lived in 15-minute increments.

Future episodes this season will explore topics including romance and intimacy, a growing movement that aims to establish prison hospice programs in order to provide compassion and dignity to incarcerated people moving through the end of life process, the memories people carry into prison with them, and the storied murals in the cafeteria of San Quentin.

For more about Ear Hustle, visit earhustlesq.com.

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About San Francisco Public Library

San Francisco Public Library is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community. The library system is made up of 27 neighborhood branches, the San Francisco Main Library at Civic Center and four bookmobiles. To learn more, please visit sfpl.org and follow on Twitter @SFPublicLibrary and on Instagram @sfpubliclibrary.