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Ear Hustle

The Loop Ep. 2: Who What Where

Ear Hustle

Ear Hustle & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.921.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nigel and Earlonne get a peek inside one of Crossroad’s residential halls, and hear from kids and staff about what it’s like to live and work here. Along the way, they cause some drama of their own.

This is the second episode of “The Loop,” Ear Hustle’s six-part series about kids in New York City who are caught up, one way or another, in the criminal justice system.

Ear Hustle would like to thank: Joanne Smith-Darden, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Ruth T. Koehler Endowed Professor in Children's Services, Michigan State University and Co-Director, SPARK Lab; Heather McCauley, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Michigan State University and Co-Director, SPARK Lab; and Adam Brown, Associate Professor, Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York, for their tremendous support of this project.

Big thanks, too, to the Drama Club team — including Josie Whittlesey, Cesar Rosado, Tiffany “Tiny” Cruz, Abby Pierce, Sophie Jones, and Ashley Adams. You can find out more about their work here.

And thanks to Nancy Ginsberg, Aylese Kanze, and Commissioner Danhauser at New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services for saying “yes” to this project.

As always, thanks to Warden Andes and Lt. Berry 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 our work.

Support our team and get even more Ear Hustle by subscribing to Ear Hustle Plus today. Sign up at earhustlesq.com/plus or directly in Apple Podcasts. 

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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Corey Thomas, who co-founded the San Quentin Film Festival along with Rassan, New York Thomas.

0:08.8

We're getting ready for our festival, October 23rd and 24th.

0:13.2

The following episode of Ear Hustle contains explicit language.

0:18.1

Please be advised.

0:19.5

This may not be for every listener.

0:31.4

Yeah, this is it right here on this side.

0:34.3

Yeah, it's the right place? Yeah, it's the right place. We are pulling up to crossroads.

0:40.3

This is it.

0:41.3

What is it doing?

0:42.3

Huh?

0:43.3

What time of these?

0:44.3

This is a juvenile detention, like a juvenile hall, a juvenile jail for the young people.

0:49.3

Oh, jail?

0:50.3

Yeah.

0:51.3

Oh.

0:52.3

All right.

0:53.3

Thank you very much. Yeah. All right.

0:55.3

Thank you very much.

1:02.5

There was this moment in the last episode where Caesar was talking about how Drama Club is just this one tiny part of a kid's week at Crossroads.

1:06.9

Remember that?

1:08.1

And how it can be hard for them to shift back to the reality of being stuck in this place. It's not just crossroads they're dealing with. You know, it's the reality of their lives and what's ahead for them. Some kids here aren't going home for a really long time. And some kids are just in limbo. They don't know what's ahead. So that made us want to know more about life at Crossroads outside of Drama Club.

1:30.3

Like, what it's like to live there, to work there, what are the rules of the place, the

...

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