
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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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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It's been more than ten months since devastating violence began unfolding in Israel and Gaza. And in the midst of all the death, so many people are trying to better understand what's going on in that region, and how the United States is implicated in it. So on this episode, we're looking back to the writing of James Baldwin, whose views on the country transformed significantly over the course of his life. His thoughts offer some ideas about how to grapple with trauma, and how to bridge the gap between places and ideas that, on their surface, might seem oceans apart.
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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.
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On the Code Switch podcast, Ross Gay reflects on his 2019 collection The Book of Delights, the difficulty of allowing yourself to be moved, and why he thinks it's important to use the word "love."
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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.
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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.
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Monarch butterflies fly the longest two-way migration of any insect species. Ecologist Sonia Altizer shares how these intrepid butterflies make the journey — and how it's being threatened.
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Science fiction author Charlie Jane Anders explains how the genre is a portal for us to imagine different ways of being human. She invites listeners into one new world with an excerpt from her work.
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We associate menopause with the ovaries, but its symptoms start in the brain. Neuroscientist Lisa Mosconi explains how brain health during menopause affects the rest of the body.
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Adults don't generate as many new neurons as children or teenagers, but some growth is still happening. Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret explains how we can encourage the production of more nerve cells.