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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Arizona has seen rising support for abortion rights among Latinos. The reasons are varied and complicated. -
Iran launched long-range missiles against Israel, just hours after Israeli forces launched a ground offensive into southern Lebanon against Iran's main proxy, Hezbollah. The dramatic escalation is raising fears of an all-out war in the Middle East. We hear from two NPR correspondents in the region. For more coverage of all sides of this conflict, go to npr.org/mideastupdates -
School is back in session, and the line between providing campus security and allowing for free speech is still extremely thin. -
The U.S. Open swings into action next week in New York City. In addition to the action on the court, the grand slam tennis tournament is already dealing with doping of the world's top-ranked male player.
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Trump speaks at his first rally since the Democratic convention, giving him a chance to refine his message now that Harris is the official nominee.
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A gunman opened fire on a moving car carrying a Sikh separatist, fueling suspicion the shooting may have been targeting his activism.
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What Vice President Harris' speech last night says about the way she'll tackle her upcoming debate, her first major interview, and the 70-odd day sprint to the election.
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Google and the state of California are paying 250 million dollars over the next five years to California news outlets, and research AI technology they say will assist journalists.
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MIT says the percentage of Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander students in its incoming freshman class has plummeted, tying it to 2023’s Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks to Regina Barber and Emily Kwong of NPR's Short Wave about an ancient magma ocean on the moon, the snake problem of Florida's Everglades, and why scrolling through video clips bores us.
