Leah Donnella
Leah Donnella is an editor on NPR's Code Switch team, where she helps produce and edit for the Code Switch podcast, blog, and newsletter. She created the "Ask Code Switch" series, where members of the team respond to listener questions about how race, identity, and culture come up in everyday life.
Donnella originally came to NPR in September 2015 as an intern for Code Switch. Prior to that, she was a summer intern at WHYY's Public Media Commons, where she helped teach high school students the ins and outs of journalism and film-making. She spent a lot of time out in the hot Philly sun tracking down unsuspecting tourists for on-the-street interviews. She also worked at the University of Pennsylvania in the department of College Houses and Academic Resources.
Donnella graduated from Pomona College with a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies.
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Everywhere you look, people are vocally celebrating MLK Day. But many are cherry-picking which parts of his legacy to recall, and which will be conveniently relegated to the dustbins of history. -
In his memoir, America Made Me a Black Man, Farah tells of what American blackness has meant to him, from his childhood in Somalia to his adolescence in the Northeast — to his return to Somalia. -
In a new book, historian Marc Dollinger argues that the conventional wisdom of Jewish and African-American harmony during the civil rights era is flawed. And that the real story has lessons for today. -
In need of some racially diverse children's Christmas literature? Here's our holiday Code Switch sampler. -
In the meantime, some are producing their own shows or creating material for alternative platforms like YouTube. -
Prince on defining his music: "The only thing I could think of, because I really don't like categories, but the only thing I could think of is inspirational." -
Two Native American authors tackle the perpetual challenge of combating ignorance, stereotypes and the notion that there's such a thing as a "real" Indian.
