KalaLea

KalaLea (WNYC Studios)

KalaLea is an audio journalist who has produced stories for NPR’s Latino USA, Slate Studios, NPR’s Interfaith Voices, The New Yorker podcasts and KCRW.

She received her Master’s degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism with a specialization in multimedia storytelling. In 2017, KalaLea was a recipient of the Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism fellowship.

Before working in audio, KalaLea worked as a digital producer for advertising and publishing companies. And before that, she was the owner of a little cafe in Brooklyn.

Shows:

Blindspot

KalaLea appears in the following:

Sheldon Pearce on Three Records that Aren’t Getting Their Due at the Grammys

Friday, April 01, 2022

The New Yorker music writer would like to right some wrongs in the nominations for pop’s biggest awards.

The Chef Bryant Terry on How To “Blackify” Fennel

Friday, March 25, 2022

Helen Rosner talks with the cookbook author and food-justice activist about uplifting diverse traditions in Black cooking and reclaiming veganism from white hipsters.

Returning to the Office . . . While Black

Friday, March 18, 2022

The Radio Hour producer KalaLea talks frankly with some Black workers about returning to the fraught dynamics of the office after two years away.

Jonathan Blitzer on Caetano Veloso

Friday, March 11, 2022

Blitzer recently profiled the living giant of Brazilian music for The New Yorker. Now he picks some key tracks from Veloso’s vast catalogue that illuminate his long career.

'Blindspot: Tulsa Burning' & American History Today

Thursday, February 10, 2022

KalaLea, host of the Dupont award winning podcast, Blindspot: Tulsa Burning, on what it means when the teaching of history is contested.

Black Thought Takes the Stage

Friday, February 04, 2022

The legendary rapper of the Roots turns to musical theatre with “Black No More,” based on a novel from the Harlem Renaissance.

The Olympic Games Return to China, in a Changed World

Friday, January 21, 2022

With COVID-19 restrictions in place and a diplomatic boycott from many nations planned, will anyone watch the 2022 Beijing Games?

Is the Gift of Tuition Enough?

Friday, December 17, 2021

Élite universities want to diversify. A college senior explains how, even when schools give full scholarships, they may misunderstand the needs of the students they seek to recruit.

Life After Prison

Friday, December 03, 2021

In 2019, Jonathan was released from prison. Our producer shadowed him to learn what emancipation feels like after two decades of being locked up.

A Dozen Years After “The New Jim Crow”

Friday, December 03, 2021

In 2010, Michelle Alexander’s best-selling book spelled out how mass incarceration harms communities of color. Assessing its impact, she looks back, and forward, with David Remnick.

Wole Soyinka on His New Satire of Corruption and Fundamentalism

Friday, October 29, 2021

In a conversation with Vinson Cunningham, the Nobel laureate, known as a playwright and poet, explains why it took him almost fifty years to write his third novel.

Susan Orlean and David Remnick on Animals

Friday, October 08, 2021

The staff writer talks about her obsession with animals, and the ways we communicate with them.

Kara Walker Talks with Thelma Golden

Friday, October 08, 2021

The influential artist on how she uses historical imagery to address the issues of our moment.

Jelani Cobb on the Kerner Report, an Unheeded Warning about the Consequences of Racism

Friday, September 17, 2021

More than half a century after the report was published, white America still struggles to acknowledge its conclusion: racism is the root cause of inequality in the United States.

Klancy Miller Talks with Helen Rosner

Friday, August 20, 2021

The author of “Cooking Solo” talks with our food correspondent about her underlying philosophy: you should treat yourself as well as you would treat anyone else.