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 Ailsa Chang talks with Kam Franklin, lead singer of the Gulf Coast soul band The Suffers, about her hometown being a source of strength, because the industry hasn't always embraced her.
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The new album from Fantastic Negrito, White Jesus Black Problems, tells the true story of two of his ancestors who defied the laws of colonial Virginia to be together.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Orville Peck, the country musician whose identity is kept secret behind a fringed mask, about his second full-length album Bronco.
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Reggaeton superstar Daddy Yankee has announced his retirement from music at the age of 45. But it's unclear whether that means he'll never perform or release music again.
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It started with a TikTok post riffing on the the lush drama series. Now, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear have received a Grammy nomination for their project, The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical.
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For Jimmie Allen, what makes a country artist isn't how many fiddles and mandolins they have in a song. It's something more natural than that.
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Arooj Aftab has been nominated for two Grammys for her song "Mohabbat." But the singer and songwriter is wary of defining her work too precisely, or letting accolades tell the whole story.
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The 28-year-old rapper opens up about her two Grammy nominations, and how meditation helps her stay centered amid an increasingly busy career.
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Anaïs Mitchell spent more than a decade developing her hit musical Hadestown, a retelling of a Greek myth set in hell. Now, after eight Tony Awards and a Grammy, she has changed the scenery.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang recaps Thursday night's Latin Grammys with Julyssa Lopez of Rolling Stone Magazine.