Christina Cala
Christina Cala is a producer for Code Switch. Before that, she was at the TED Radio Hour where she piloted two new episode formats — the curator chat and the long interview. She's also reported on a movement to preserve African American cultural sites in Birmingham and followed youth climate activists in New York City.
Before that, she spent five years producing, reporting and editing for NPR's evening news program, All Things Considered. While at All Things Considered, she reported from the Colombia-Venezuela border on the migration crisis, covered immigration from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, told the story of one man moving through the immigration system, field-produced from the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki and reported her first piece from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Her reporting on the border was part of a 2019 Edward R. Murrow award-winning package.
In her role with All Things Considered, Cala served as the show's update producer and director, participating in special breaking news coverage. She also led music coverage for the show, reporting and producing from SXSW, editing music reviews and training the next generation of music critics.
In 2018, she co-founded the MGIPOC (Marginalized Gender and Intersex People of Color) Mentorship Program at NPR. The program includes one-on-one mentorship, scholarships for conferences, monthly brown-bags and an annual speaker symposium. She and her co-founders have presented on the program at ONA, Third Coast, Werk It and more. She and her co-founders received the NPR Diversity Success employee award for their work in 2018.
Before coming to NPR, she reported internationally from Lima on the Carnegie Foundation Global Reporting Fellowship, Munich on the Eric Lund Global Reporting and Research grant, and at the Times/Sunday Times Newspaper in Cape Town.
She graduated from Northwestern University with her Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science in Journalism.
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Viet Thanh Nguyen came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam when he was four years old. Growing up in San Jose, California, Nguyen remembers the moment he understood he was Asian-American. In his latest book, To Save and To Destroy: Writing as an Other, Nguyen examines the power in finding solidarity with other Others, especially in today's America. -
One of President Trump's main campaign promises was carrying out mass deportations. We look at how the Trump administration is testing the U.S. legal system to make good on its promise, starting with the story of one family trying to find their 18-year-old son after immigration agents showed up at their doorstep. -
President Trump has put diversity, equity, and inclusion in his crosshairs — but there's no consensus on what DEI even means. Some say that that fuzziness is the point, and that the current anti-DEI push is part of a larger plan to undo the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement. -
As the U.S. health system grapples with new outbreaks and the risk of old diseases making a comeback, we're looking to the past to inform how people in marginalized communities can prepare themselves for how the current administration might handle an epidemic. On this episode, a conversation with historian and author Edna Bonhomme, about her latest book A History of the World in Six Plagues. -
Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia alum, was detained by ICE for his role in leading pro-Palestinian protests at his former university last year. As Khalil's case has captured the nation's attention, free speech advocates see it as a test of the First Amendment. Meanwhile, the Trump administration argues they have the right to deport Khalil without charging him with a crime. On this episode, why Khalil's arrest should worry all of us. -
To be a Palestinian-American writer right now can lead to a lot of expectation to focus on identity and devastation, but in her debut novel, Too Soon, Betty Shamieh shares the story of three generations of Palestinian women trying to find love, purpose and liberation. -
The Panama Canal's impact on the geopolitical stage far outreaches its roughly 51-mile stretch of land and water. This week, we're trying to understand the canal's murky future - from climate change to President Trump's threat to take it for the U.S. - by looking at its turbulent, cataclysmic birth. -
B.A. Parker digs into the historical connection between Black Americans and soap operas with the launching of "Beyond the Gates," the first ever soap focused primarily on a Black family. -
In 2015, the NFL agreed to an uncapped settlement to pay former players diagnosed with brain disease. The agreement came after players sued the league for covering what it knew about the links between brain disease and football. But who's gotten paid and how much is affected by their race. On the final episode of our series on race and football, we speak with Will Hobson, investigative sports reporter at The Washington Post. -
Altadena was the site of the Eaton fire, one of two major wildfires in Los Angeles County in January. The wind and flames destroyed more than 9,000 structures — and with them, the long-tenured Black community in the town. As efforts to recover and rebuild the town are underway, many residents are left wondering, what of their community will remain?
