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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Regina Barber and Emily Kwong of Short Wave talk about spider web architecture, storytelling and memory, and why more TV pixels may not translate to a better viewing experience.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang goes on a nighttime hike in search of spiders, with Lisa Gonzalez of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with University of St. Thomas law professor Mark Osler about the House Oversight Committee's call for an investigation into President Biden's executive actions signed by autopen.
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Because of the shutdown, the federal government is belatedly releasing new Consumer Price Index numbers, which the Social Security Administration needs to adjust for next year's benefits.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Kevin Blackistone, a national sports columnist at The Washington Post, about where Thursday's NBA gambling arrests fit within the history of sports gambling scandals.
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Ever see two people and wonder, are they a couple? Aaron Feinberg, a co-creator of Meet Cutes NYC, takes this question head-on in his spontaneous interviews on the streets of New York and new book.
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In the NBA season opener, the Houston Rockets started what might be the tallest NBA lineup of all time. Host Ailsa Chang speaks with the Ringer's Rob Mahoney, about the evolution of the skilled big man in the NBA.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Anthony Amore, director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, about art heists and what he's noticed about the recent jewelry theft from the Louvre.
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Republican leaders are responding to a Politico report that exposed racist messages shared by Young Republican organizations in Kansas, New York, Arizona and Vermont.
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The latest shutdown layoffs at HUD target fair housing investigators around the country. Critics say that'll make it hard to enforce the fair housing laws Congress has passed.