
Ashley Westerman
Ashley Westerman is a producer who occasionally directs the show. Since joining the staff in June 2015, she has produced a variety of stories including a coal mine closing near her hometown, the 2016 Republican National Convention, and the Rohingya refugee crisis in southern Bangladesh. She is also an occasional reporter for Morning Edition, and NPR.org, where she has contributed reports on both domestic and international news.
Ashley was a summer intern in 2011 with Morning Edition and pitched a story on her very first day. She went on to work as a reporter and host for member station 89.3 WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she earned awards covering everything from healthcare to jambalaya.
Ashley is an East-West Center 2018 Jefferson Fellow and a two-time reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists. Through ICFJ, she has covered labor issues in her home country of the Philippines for NPR and health care in Appalachia for Voice of America.
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NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Kareem Smith, a journalist with 'Barbados Today,' about the country removing the Queen of England as its head of state and what that means for Barbadians moving forward.
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NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Phil Bryant, the former governor of Mississippi who signed a bill that bans abortions after 15 weeks. The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments over the law.
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Transracial and transnational adoptees say it's been difficult to express their thoughts about race and social justice provoked by police killings, anti-Asian violence and immigration.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at New York University, on mixing and matching COVID booster shots with an original vaccine.
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In recent years, conversations around race and social justice have come to the fore. Trans-racial and trans-national adoptees share how it can be hard to express their thoughts about these issues.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Zachary Abuza, Southeast Asia expert and National War College professor, about the White House's options following Myanmar's release of American journalist Danny Fenster.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson about a case against three drug distributors for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic, as case's trial starts Monday.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Matthew Luxmoore of Radio Free Europe about the growing migrant crisis on the border of Belarus and Poland.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with White House economic adviser Brian Deese as inflation soars to its highest in 30 years.
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There is a glaring irony of the pandemic: Countries like the island nation of Tonga that have managed to keep the virus at bay may be some of the last to recover from the economic impact.