Ailsa Chang
Ailsa Chang is an award-winning journalist who hosts All Things Considered along with Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, and Mary Louise Kelly. She landed in public radio after practicing law for a few years.
Chang is a former Planet Money correspondent, where she got to geek out on the law while covering the underground asylum industry in the largest Chinatown in America, privacy rights in the cell phone age, the government's doomed fight to stop racist trademarks, and the money laundering case federal agents built against one of President Trump's top campaign advisers.
Previously, she was a congressional correspondent with NPR's Washington Desk. She covered battles over healthcare, immigration, gun control, executive branch appointments, and the federal budget.
Chang started out as a radio reporter in 2009, and has since earned a string of national awards for her work. In 2012, she was honored with the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her investigation into the New York City Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" policy and allegations of unlawful marijuana arrests by officers. The series also earned honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.
She was also the recipient of the Daniel Schorr Journalism Award, a National Headliner Award, and an honor from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigation on how Detroit's broken public defender system leaves lawyers with insufficient resources to effectively represent their clients.
In 2011, the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association named Chang as the winner of the Art Athens Award for General Excellence in Individual Reporting for radio. In 2015, she won a National Journalism Award from the Asian American Journalists Association for her coverage of Capitol Hill.
Prior to coming to NPR, Chang was an investigative reporter at NPR Member station WNYC from 2009 to 2012 in New York City, focusing on criminal justice and legal affairs. She was a Kroc fellow at NPR from 2008 to 2009, as well as a reporter and producer for NPR Member station KQED in San Francisco.
The former lawyer served as a law clerk to Judge John T. Noonan Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.
Chang graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University where she received her bachelor's degree.
She earned her law degree with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she won the Irving Hellman Jr. Special Award for the best piece written by a student in the Stanford Law Review in 2001.
Chang was also a Fulbright Scholar at Oxford University, where she received a master's degree in media law. She also has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she never got to have a dog. But now she's the proud mama of Mickey Chang, a shih tzu who enjoys slapping high-fives and mingling with senators.
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NPR's movie critic and producers discuss how queerness is present across all genres of movies in ways seen and unseen.
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In our latest installment of Cineplexity, NPR staffers discuss how much horror is too much for kids to watch in movies.
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In the news, Sudan is often discussed a place devastated by a civil war and home to the world's largest humanitarian crisis. But a podcast sharing Sudanese folklore shows more about the culture.
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Amid tariff confusion, online vendors are looking to recruit new customers. -
NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with chef Roy Choi about his new cookbook, The Choi of Cooking: Flavor-Packed, Rule-Breaking Recipes for a Delicious Life.
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In 2022, the Chinese government told NPR's Emily Feng she was no longer welcome in China, where she'd lived and reported from for seven years. She says she hasn't lost claim to her Chinese identity.
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TOKiMONSTA has had her share of life challenges, including being unable to speak or comprehend music, and the death of a friend. Her new album, Eternal Reverie, pays homage to friend, Regina Biondo. -
Rapper and musician Anthony Obi, known by his stage name Fat Tony, talks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about losing his home in Altadena to the Eaton Fire earlier this month.
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The Palisades Fire destroyed more than 2,800 homes and buildings. One of them was the historic ranch house of Will Rogers, the vaudeville entertainer and trick roper.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Pagan Kennedy about her new book The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, which explains the origin of the rape kit and the woman behind it.
