
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.
-
Western Kentucky is dealing with the aftermath of a deadly tornado now, but 10 years ago Joplin, Mo., was in the same place. Joplin Mayor Ryan Stanley offers his advice for those in Kentucky.
-
China's economic growth has been slowing down for years. Tariffs have contributed to slower growth since early 2018, when the economic standoff began, but it's hard to pinpoint how much.
-
Hundreds of millions have climbed out of poverty, but an equality gap has widened. Seventy years after Mao's revolution, many Chinese people reflect on their own stories of struggle and mobility.
-
The elaborate celebration of the Communist Party's seven decades of power comes at a time when China is facing immense challenges both at home and abroad.
-
The young Swedish activist led a protest at the White House on Friday. But she wasn't looking to go inside. "I don't want to meet with people who don't accept the science," she says.
-
Common, the Chicago-hailing rapper, actor and activist, talks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about his latest album, Let Love,and appreciating stillness in order to make it.
-
The Trump administration gave transgender service members a deadline to secure a medical diagnosis before the new ban took hold. But military families are struggling with the accelerated timeline.
-
For the past year, residents in Allendale, Mich., have been debating whether to include LGBTQ+ people and perspectives in the school district's sex education program and anti-bullying campaign.
-
In her new book, psychology professor Jennifer Eberhardt explores how unconscious racial bias shapes human behavior — and suggests that we examine what situations can trigger racial bias.
-
Incarcerated pregnant women are often shackled during medical appointments and childbirth. A provision in a criminal justice bill aims to end the practice in federal facilities.