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 actor Jaleel White about his new memoir, Growing Up Urkel, and the highs and lows of the fame that came along with playing one of the most iconic nerds on '90s television.
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Malcolm Washington talks about bringing the play The Piano Lesson — about a brother and sister battling over what to do with a family heirloom piano — to the big screen with his whole family.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with horror movie director and critic Rebekah McKendry about her favorite scary movies of 2024.
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Researchers have discovered a Mayan site hidden deep in the jungle on the Yucatan Peninsula thought to have been built over a thousand years ago.
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NPR talks with Jose Ralat, the taco editor at Texas Monthly, about the best tacos in the state.
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Morgan Library in New York is celebrating its 100th anniversary by recognizing one of its most influential librarians.
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Arizona has seen rising support for abortion rights among Latinos. The reasons are varied and complicated. -
NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Stephen Richer, the Republican Maricopa County Recorder, about his office's intense preparations to secure early voting in the swing state of Arizona.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang and her team are reporting from Arizona, a key swing state that will help decide who becomes the next president.
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The Spanish-language radio network Radio Campesina reaches millions of Latino voters, including in Arizona. It recently launched a campaign to fight false information ahead of this year's election.
