Morgan Freeman Backs Ear Hustle Prison Podcast Documentary
Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary are backing a feature documentary about Ear Hustle, the podcast created inside prison walls.
Filmmaker Erika Cohn is directing the project, with Freeman and McCreary attached as executive producers, the senior screen credits for backers who help guide a film, under their Revelations Entertainment banner, as reported by Variety on 15 September 2026.
It started behind bars. Ear Hustle launched in 2017 from Nigel Poor, Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, and was the first podcast produced entirely inside a prison, according to Variety. Woods and Williams were incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in California when they started it with Poor, a volunteer who taught photography there.
The series tells stories of daily life after sentencing, in the voices of the people living it. It now sits with the Radiotopia network, powered by PRX, the United States public-media group that distributes podcasts to stations and listeners.
The new film will follow the three co-creators beyond San Quentin. Cameras track Poor, Woods and Williams as they travel to prisons around the world to record and to meet incarcerated storytellers, as detailed by Variety.
The producing team is set. Cohn produces alongside Jaz Kealoha Berger and Rajal Pitroda, while James Younger, Insiyah Haveliwala and Patty Quillin join Freeman and McCreary as additional executive producers.
A separate screen version has also been in the works. A docuseries based on the podcast has been in development from Freeman and McCreary's Revelations Entertainment, as reported by Deadline in March 2024. That project is distinct from the Cohn feature now announced.
What makes this stand out for listeners is the shift in scale. The podcast built its audience on close, first-person audio recorded inside one prison. The film widens that idea to other countries and puts faces and places to the voices.
