
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 speaks with climate scientist Alex Hall about the temporary relief that Hilary has offered the drought in California.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Jeva Lange, who wrote a story called "Most Wildfires Aren't Forest Fires," about how wildfires largely occur in grasslands.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with USA Today track and field reporter Tyler Dragon about Sha'Carri Richardson becoming the fastest woman in the world and her journey to the top spot.
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Illinois has passed legislation entitling child influencers under 16 to a portion of their earnings as parents and former child influencers have been talking about the dangers of growing up online.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with comedian Kyle Gordon, aka DJ Crazy Times, about his new hit song "The Planet of the Bass" — a 1990s Eurodance parody that has taken the internet by storm.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Gina McCarthy, the former climate policy adviser for President Biden, about whether the IRA has had helped the U.S. properly deal with the threat of climate change.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Atlanta journalist George Chidi on how Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis has used Georgia's RICO laws to prosecute previous cases.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with researcher Andrew Lebovich about the aftermath of the coup in Niger, where leaders of the military say they will prosecute the country's deposed president for treason.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang searches coastal California for wild bumblebees with conservation biologist Leif Richardson, one of the leaders of the California Bumble Bee Atlas.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Pardeep Cattry, soccer writer for CBS Sports, about the U.S. Women's National Team's World Cup performance and key matchups in the next world cup round.