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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As the Trump administration targets the Smithsonian Institute for "divisive narratives" and "improper ideology," it got us thinking about how we preserve our history and everything that builds it, like language. So we're revisiting an episode from last year from the Lakota Nation in South Dakota over language — who preserves it, who has the right to the stories told in it, and who (literally) owns it. -
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. -
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. -
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? -
Several members of NPR's staff recommend fiction from this year's Books We Love list: "The Mighty Red," "Catalina," "Help Wanted," "Piglet" and "Mina's Matchbox."
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As war continues to rage in the Middle East, attention has been turned to how American Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians relate to the state of Israel. But when we talk about the region, American Christians, particularly evangelical Christians, are often not part of that story. But their political support for Israel is a major driver for U.S. policy — in part because Evangelicals make up an organized, dedicated constituency with the numbers to exert major influence on U.S. politics. -
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. -
Legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle has been exploring and working to protect our oceans for more than half a century. Her message has stayed the same: we're taking our oceans for granted. -
What does it mean to be healthy and to care for our bodies? This hour, physician and writer Jen Gunter empowers us to cut through false medical claims and make informed decisions about our health.
