Ali does weekly reporting for Marketplace - with a focus on the intersection between environment and economics.
Colorado Public Radio
After the Mountain West News Bureau (and after becoming a new parent at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic) Ali took a role as Senior Producer for Colorado Matters, a live statewide public affairs program on Colorado Public Radio.
She reported and produced weekly interviews and features — both for broadcast and digital audiences — for this daily live statewide public affairs program. This included her participation in the Colorado Matters holiday special as well as reporting on the closing of a coal-fired power plant for the show’s the state-wide reporting road trip.
Ali was recognized with several newsroom awards for her work on the Colorado Matters team.
KRCC/ Mountain West News Bureau
In 2018, Ali moved from California to Colorado to be a founding reporter for the CPB-funded regional journalism collaborative, the Mountain West News Bureau. She was based at KRCC Radio in Colorado Springs.
While there, Ali reported for public radio stations across Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Nevada. Her stories covered issues of public land, water, urban growth, wildlife, politics, immigration, native issues, climate change, and Western culture and heritage.
Credit: Matt Bloom/ KUNC
During her time with the Bureau, Ali landed several stories on national programs like NPR’s All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, NPR Newscasts, Here and Now, and Marketplace. She was interviewed about her reporting by Joshua Johnson on 1A. Alongside her team, Ali reported a feature story for an in-depth series on private prisons funded by the Pulitzer Center.
KALW
Ali Budner came to KALW as a volunteer reporter with Crosscurrents in early 2009, then joined the Your Call team as a producer in March of 2010.
In 3+ years, Ali produced more than 500 live shows on a diverse array of topics, from health care to the environment to education, politics, the arts, and beyond.
She also helped facilitate and teach a 10-month radio education program, KALW’s then-nascent Audio Academy.
While at KALW, Ali reported and co-produced an hour long documentary, The Race To An Emergency, about the 9-1-1 system in Oakland, California. In 2014, the piece was honored with several awards including the national Edward R. Murrow award for best radio news documentary in a large market.
In late 2014, Ali traveled to Fukushima, Japan with a group of journalists from San Francisco State University to report on the ongoing aftermath of the tsunami and radiation disaster of 2011. Her feature story from the trip aired on KALW.