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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With Kamala Harris entering the presidential race, we look back at what has shaped her personally and politically —from being the self-described "top cop" of California, to taking on a former president with dozens of felony convictions. -
For decades now, drag queens have captured the national imagination. Drag kings, on the other hand, have been relegated to a less prominent position in pop culture. But today on the show, we're telling the story of one Elsie Saldaña — aka El Daña. As someone who started performing in drag in 1965, she's now considered one of the oldest drag kings still performing in the U.S. Over the course of her long performance career, many forces have converged that could have stopped her from taking to the stage. But today, almost 60 years after her debut, she hasn't stopped yet. -
Every summer B.A. Parker returns to Creswell, North Carolina, where her family still has a farm. But she's mostly avoided actually going to the nearby site where her ancestors were enslaved. This week, we revisit the second of two episodes, where Parker and her mom decide to go back to the plantation. -
In part one of two episodes, B.A. Parker meets people who, like her, are grappling with how to honor their enslaved ancestors. She asks herself: what kind of descendant does she want to be? -
This week we're bringing you the first episode in a new series called Inheriting, created in collaboration with our friends at LAist Studios. In each episode, NPR's Emily Kwong sits down with Asian American and Pacific Islander families and explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. -
President Biden just issued an executive order that can temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to asylum seekers once a daily threshold of crossings is exceeded. On this episode, we dig into how the political panic surrounding what many are calling an immigration "crisis" at the border, isn't new. And in fact...it's a problem of our own creation. -
Code Switch wants to include your thoughts in our live show. We need you to send us a voice memo on what home means to you! -
Code Switch fellowships for mid-career journalists are back. Submit a proposal and get a chance to work with Code Switch and NPR editors and producers to craft your story on race and identity. -
Xiye Bastida was raised in the highlands of Mexico with an understanding that she had to thank the Earth for everything it provided. Now, she's dedicated her entire life to the issue of protecting it. -
Computer scientist Joy Buolamwini is on a mission to fight bias in algorithms. In this comic, Buolamwini discusses the way biased algorithms can lead to real world inequality — and what we can do.
