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 , , , and the .
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 . 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 Oxford University philosopher Roman Krznaric about the disruption nexus, a theory for social change he outlines in his new book, History For Tomorrow.
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IUDs are a safe and reliable form of birth control, but many people struggle to get simple answers about the device. NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with Mia Armstrong-Lopez, who wrote about this for Slate.
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Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat and a close ally of President Biden, says it's still unclear whether Biden will maintain his bid for a second term. "The president has to make this decision," Green told NPR.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with music writer and critic Alim Kheraj about Kesha's first single since splitting from mega-producer Dr. Luke's record label.
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Hurricane Beryl gradually weakens as it continues on its course across the Caribbean, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. This is the earliest category 5 storm in the Atlantic on record.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell about her visit to Sudan and what she saw about the toll the country's civil war has had on children.
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Constitutional law expert Kim Wehle discusses what the Supreme Court's immunity decision means for former President Donald Trump's legal cases.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with author Juli Min about her new book Shanghailanders, which unspools the story of a family in reverse.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with soccer writer Dermot Corrigan about the latest action at the men's Euro Cup 2024.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with journalist Stephen Witt about chip-maker Nvidia's rise to become the most valuable company in the world and what it means for the future of AI.
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Porochista Khakpour's new novel, Tehrangeles, zeroes in on an Iranian-American family whose massive wealth springs from a snack food empire.
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When Chat GPT came out a year and a half ago, school districts rushed to block the tool amid fears students would use it to cheat. Now, many districts are embracing AI more broadly.