Slam That Door

Ear Hustle

Ear Hustle & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

San Quentin's death row has been cleared out; soon it'll be renovated into an honor dorm. We make one last visit with four men who, between them, spent over 130 years on the row. We see the solitary cells where they spent decades of their lives, and hear what it's been like to leave those cells and join the "mainline" prison population.

This episode was scored with music by Antwan "Banks" Williams, David Jassy, Earlonne Woods, Derrell Sadiq Davis, Lee Jaspar, and Fernando Arruda.

Big thanks to Warden Andes, Lt. Berry, and Sgt. Strayhorn at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center; Acting Warden Parker, Associate Warden Lewis, and Lt. Newborg at the California Institution for Women; and Warden De La Cruz and Lt. Williams at the Central California Women's Facility for their support of the show.

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Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story.
0:04.5	But right now, you probably need more.
0:07.2	On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes.
0:14.0	Because no one's story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning.
0:20.7	Listen now to the Up First
0:22.1	podcast from NPR. Hi, it's Eliza Hirsch. The following episode of Ear Hustle contains language
0:29.9	and content that may not be appropriate for all listeners. There's also a brief mention of
0:35.1	suicide. Listener discretion is advised.
0:49.5	Do you think that the four of you have some kind of connection that other people don't have?
0:55.4	Oh, yeah.
0:57.0	We've been through a place where, like, a lot of these guys on the mainline has never been.
1:00.7	We're like brothers in the war.
1:02.8	We went to somewhere where no one's been.
1:06.4	I turned, like, remember that time, this, and we can understand each other.
1:13.4	We lived through our death sick.
1:18.1	We made it.
1:19.1	We made it out of death block.
1:26.8	Recently, we sat down with four guys who spent a lot of years on death row at San Quentin.
1:32.4	They sure did.
1:33.4	So there was Steve, who used to go by cricket.
1:36.2	He was on death row for how long?
1:38.1	35 years.
	...

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