Nigel Poor has spent her career as an artist examining the things — and people — that San Francisco would rather not think about. Now she's bringing that lens home with a live event for her acclaimed prison-life podcast.

For those unfamiliar, Poor is the co-creator and host of Ear Hustle, the groundbreaking podcast recorded inside San Quentin State Prison that gives listeners an unfiltered look at daily life behind bars. It's storytelling that doesn't ask you to excuse anything but does ask you to pay attention. And in a city that loves to talk about criminal justice reform while stepping over the human consequences of its own policies, that's a message worth hearing.

Here's what makes Poor's work interesting from a liberty perspective: she doesn't approach incarceration as a left-right issue. The podcast simply documents what happens when the state takes control of someone's life — the bureaucratic absurdities, the dehumanizing routines, the moments of unexpected humanity. If you believe, as we do, that government power should always be scrutinized, Ear Hustle is essential listening regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.

Poor started her artistic career cataloging San Francisco's discarded objects — lost photos, abandoned belongings, the physical detritus of a city in constant flux. The through-line to her prison work isn't subtle. San Francisco has a long history of discarding people too, whether through an incarceration system that warehouses rather than rehabilitates, or through policies that shuffle the homeless from one neighborhood to the next without solving anything.

The United States locks up more people per capita than any other nation on earth. That's not a progressive talking point — it's a fiscal disaster. Every incarcerated person costs California taxpayers north of $130,000 per year. If you're a fiscal conservative who isn't asking hard questions about whether that money is being well spent, you're not really a fiscal conservative.

Poor's SF event is worth your time. Sometimes the most radical act is simply listening.