Thank you for joining us in our first 30-day challenge.

While we can’t replicate exactly what it feels like to be inside, we’re glad you’re with us as we attempt to eat, work out, dress, and shower following the routines of our colleagues inside San Quentin for 30 days.

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A Message From Nigel Poor

For many years, I have been beguiled by the performance artist Tehching Hseih, who in the 1970s and 80s created an intense series of durational performance art pieces that investigated and challenged how we engage with freedom of choice, constraint, and time. Over the course of five year-long pieces, Hseih voluntarily withdrew from what most people would consider a normal interactive life. For his first project, “Cage Piece,” which lasted from September 30, 1978 to September 29, 1979, Hseih locked himself in a cage he built in his studio, furnished with only a wash basin, light, pail, and a single bed. He did not allow himself to talk, read, write, or listen to a radio or TV. Once a day, his food was brought to him and his waste was removed. The next year, he engaged in a project called “The Time Clock Piece,” where he was held not in space, but by time: bound to a time clock he had to punch every hour, on the hour, for 365 days. These unusual works investigate repetition, time, waiting, patience, anticipation, and free thinking. 

When I started going into San Quentin in 2011, I thought a lot about Hseih’s work, as it seemed to touch on some of what is encountered when you enter the prison system. To be very clear, I am not equating performance art with incarceration. What I am saying is that incarceration forces some of the same issues Hseih was so interested in. For me, Hseih’s primary question is: What makes a life? It is a question I am constantly asking myself, and for me it is a primary directive when working on our stories. Ear Hustle is a project that looks at the everyday experience of life inside and life post-incarceration; we are dedicated to telling stories about making a life where you are. I don’t believe that life is ever on hold. We always have the possibility of moving forward, even in situations that require us to live in deprivation. It isn’t easy, but it is possible, to find meaning and have meaning. 

Life inside prison is many things, not easily defined, but one universal aspect is the experience of losing the freedoms we take for granted on the street. This removal of freedom of choice affects every aspect of how time is spent in prison: you are told what and when to eat, what to wear, when to shower, when you can make calls, who you can spend time with, the list goes on and on. These rules and constraints affect the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are clearly detrimental, but they can also push people to dig deep into themselves and find determination and resources that are powerful and life altering. 

Pondering this inspired me to come up with our own Ear Hustle challenge. For 30 days, starting October 3, we are embarking on an experiment to explore the effects of constraint.  

Members of the outside Ear Hustle team will attempt to eat, work out, dress, and shower following the routines of our colleagues inside San Quentin. We’ll be keeping audio diaries about the experience, noting how our health, well-being, and sense of time are affected. This is also Ear Hustle’s first truly interactive episode. All month, we’ll be sharing recipes, workout videos, routines, and updates, and inviting listeners to join us in this exploration through voicemails and social media. We’ll be including some of these listener contributions in our December 1 episode.  

We are not trying to re-create the work of Tehching Hseih, nor are we trying to say we can re-create on the outside what is experienced inside prison. What we are doing is simply taking away some of the freedoms we enjoy out here and replacing them with some of the constraints imposed inside. Through that process, we want to track what is lost and what we let go of, and spend time thinking about how values and insights change when you take away the ability to freely control some of life's daily choices. 

Thank you again for joining us in this exploration of constraint.