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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Former top executives at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are set to appear before the Senate Banking Committee after both lenders had to be rescued by the government earlier this year.
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Special Counsel John Durham's report found that the FBI shouldn't have launched a full investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged connection to Russia during the 2016 election.
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Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies talks about Ukraine's planned counteroffensive and what it will take to be successful.
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For decades, Eastwind Books was an anchor for the Bay Area's Asian American community. Now, the husband and wife duo behind it have decided to close the shop. -
On their new record 72 Seasons, Metallica proves they're still making inspired music for hardcore fans. For a metal band with many of its members approaching 60, that's no small feat. -
From Something Good — Negro Kiss to Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Black cinema has long served as a form of resistance. -
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Laura Washington of The Chicago Tribune about the results of the Chicago mayoral election.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks about the company's move to reduce prices on some older insulins and cap how much people have to pay out of their own pocket.
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Greta Thunberg says she has no plans to get into politics as a career, and she thinks she can do more as a climate campaigner on the outside. -
The Grammy-nominated R&B artist made her name in the music industry as a songwriter. It took a career pivot for her to write a hit song for herself.
