Meher Ali

Meher Ali joined the KCBX team as a volunteer in October of 2024, and by December she had already moved into a staff position as the producer and host of our weekly radio magazine Issues & Ideas. She has been a journalist since 2009. Meher has reported from various cities around India on human rights, refugee and social justice issues, as well as on heritage and culture.

She enjoys listening to people’s life stories and has documented these in Aligarh, her hometown in northern India. Her articles have been published by the The Wire, Pacifica Network, Himal Southasian, and TwoCircles.net, among others. She also writes fiction, and her short stories explore themes of place, family and what constitutes as home.

Meher studied politics and sociology at Ithaca College and then earned her master's degree in Development Studies at the University of East Anglia in the UK. She holds a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in India.

She started a podcast called Last Book Alive as way of building a community around friendship and reading. It ran until April 2024 and the last four episodes focused on Palestinian literature. She lives in San Luis Obispo with her family that includes a cat. In her free time, she reads, listens to music, watches horror movies and goes on long walks.