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 Dr. Elizabeth Benjamin, Grady Memorial Hospital's trauma medical director in Atlanta, Ga., about gun violence and its devastating impact on public health.
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In the last two years, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia have decriminalized or fully legalized abortion. Here's what Latin America's green wave can teach the movement in the U.S. -
As many Americans continue to struggle financially because of inflation, we set out to clear the air on some common claims about what's going on. -
NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson about the future of abortion access after the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
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Robin Marty, operations director of the West Alabama Women's Center, talks about the patients who just missed their chance to receive abortions in Alabama, where the ban went into effect immediately.
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After a rough couple of years, we asked teachers to tell us how they are doing. Their answers were revealing. -
The process of judicial bypass that lets minors seek an abortion without telling their parents may disappear if the Supreme Court overturns the Roe v Wade decision. -
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Rosann Mariappuram of Jane's Due Process about the impact Roe's fall would have on abortion access for minors. A teenager shares her experience navigating judicial bypass.
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When the pandemic hit, this small business was about to shutter its doors. Then Tiktok came along. -
If Roe V. Wade is overturned, reproductive healthcare in this country will change drastically. Here are some insights that might help in preparation for that possibility.
