If you’ve ever tuned into your local National Public Radio (NPR) station, you might have heard Ailsa Chang’s voice reporting on stories from Capitol Hill or interviewing authors, actors, and more. She began as an intern and worked her way up at NPR member stations WNYC and KQED, and as a correspondent for NPR’s Washington Desk and “Planet Money.” In 2018, when the San Francisco Bay Area native became host of “All Things Considered,” she made history as the first Asian American woman to host the program — or any NPR show, for that matter. Chang’s success demonstrates her natural skill and determination, but she didn’t always have her sights on broadcast journalism. Prior to Chang’s life in public radio, she spent a few years in law.
Recently, the lawyer-turned-journalist sat face-to-face with Mochi for a conversation over Zoom — something that she’s not quite used to, being a radio host and all. She shared what she’s learned about herself over the course of her illustrious career … at least, so far.
Lesson #1: Let go of the plan.
If you asked a younger Chang what her career would look like, she would have told you without hesitation that she was going to be a lawyer. The signs were obvious: She loved arguing and public speaking, and was “a total speech and debate nerd” in high school. In law school, she adored the rigor of the environment, how it required analytical thinking and asking larger ethical questions about fairness.
After an appellate clerkship, she landed at one of the top law firms in the country, with “some of the smartest attorneys in the U.S.,” she notes. “My colleagues were people who could do anything they wanted to in the world. And they all chose to be [at that firm], so I thought, ‘Well, OK, if I just stay here long enough, I will see what keeps all of these people here.’”
But for Chang, the work at the law firm was “the worst combination of being really bored and really stressed at the same time,…
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