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:
KalaLea appears in the following:
The Actor Jenifer Lewis: Mother, Activist, Hurricane
Friday, August 26, 2022
Wherever she performs, Jenifer Lewis tends to steal the show. Now she’s written a new book and plays a multimillionaire boss on Showtime’s “I Love That For You.”
Emma Green on Understanding the Nuance in the Abortion Debate
Friday, August 19, 2022
The staff writer, who covers the pro-life movement, discusses how individuals’ positions seldom reflect the furious partisan divide. Green shares some nuanced sources.
What’s Driving Black Candidates to the Republican Party?
Friday, August 19, 2022
The Republican Party has made clear that it has no place for Black activism. Yet Black candidates for Congress are running in the G.O.P. in record numbers.
The Writer Dmitry Bykov on Putin’s Russia, the Land of the “Most Free Slaves”
Friday, July 15, 2022
Dmitry Bykov was a force in Russian cultural life; now he’s effectively in exile, probably for as long as Putin remains in power. The regime is “the final stage of Russian decline.”
Forget Dating Apps—the “Marriage Pact” Goes for the Long Haul
Friday, June 17, 2022
At campuses across the country, students are taking an online survey designed to find them a long-term match. Can algorithms point the way to more satisfying relationships?
Sara Nelson on the Drive to Unionize Delta Flight Attendants
Friday, June 03, 2022
The head of the largest flight attendants’ union is leading her members through turbulent times. Nelson speaks with The New Yorker’s Jennifer Gonnerman.
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.
