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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Three men behind the 9/11 attacks have agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Liz Miller, whose father was killed on Sept. 11 when she was six, shares her view on the outcome.
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Former President Donald J. Trump did a question and answer session at the 2024 National Association of Black Journalists conference this week.
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There are more than an estimated 3000 World War II shipwrecks across the Pacific Ocean. After years of decay, some of the wrecks are spilling thousands of tons of oil and fuel into the sea.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Khaled Elgindy, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, about what the future may look like for Hamas after one of its top leader was allegedly assassinated by Israel.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Jessica Winter of The New Yorker about J.D. Vance's politics, particularly his views around the importance of having children.
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California's newest state park just opened this summer — and a visit is like stepping into a time machine as its creators reimagine what a state park can be. -
In the Central Valley, California’s first new state park in a decade opened this summer and it re-imagines what a state park can be.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Ralph Basham, the director of the Secret Service during the George W. Bush administration, about Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle's decision to resign.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with producer Dan Collison about his documentary on the Port Chicago 50, a group of Black sailors who were charged with mutiny for refusing to work under unsafe conditions.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with David Frum, a senior editor for The Atlantic, to dig a little deeper into J.D. Vance’s political path. Frum knew the politician and wrote a piece about him in 2022.
