
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 CalMatters reporter Nadia Lopez about the challenges California may face as it tries to reach its climate goal of zero-emission vehicles in the state by 2035.
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Pamela Anderson, the Playboy Playmate and TV star who became one of the most famous sex symbols of all time, has written a book about herself. And it was her sons who gave her the idea.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with actor and writer Pamela Anderson about her autobiography Love, Pamela.
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Eleven people are dead and several others injured after a shooting Saturday night in Monterey Park. Calif. Members of the community say they are in shock as they are beginning to mourn.
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On Saturday, a gunman killed 11 victims at a ballroom studio in Monterey Park, Calif. Residents react near the site of the shooting, where normally, Lunar New Year Celebrations would be ongoing.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Min Zhou, a professor of sociology and Asian American Studies at UCLA, about the city of Monterey Park, Calif., and the community where a shooting took place on Saturday.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with former WNBA star Maya Moore and her husband, Jonathan Irons. She officially announced her retirement after four years away working to overturn his wrongful conviction.
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As the battle over the debt ceiling heats up in Congress, NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Congressman Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, about the negotiations.
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The San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy went on a journey from "Mr. Irrelevant" to football superstar.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with realtor Mark Alston about the DOJ's record-breaking settlement with City National Bank after it was accused of redlining and racially discriminatory mortgage practices.