Lisa Ling is a special correspondent for the National Geographic Channel and the Oprah Winfrey Show. For Oprah, Ling has been sent to cover the Lord's Resistance Army and the crisis of AIDS orphans in Uganda, bride burning in India, and gang-rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ling was the first woman host of National Geographic's Emmy award-winning flagship series Explorer, where she investigated the increasingly deadly drug war in Colombia, examined the complex issues surrounding China's one-child policy and explored the phenomenon of female suicide bombers in Chechnya and Israel's occupied territories. She also explored the hidden and dangerous culture inside American prisons and street gang MS-13.
Early on, Ling was known for revealing her "view" of the world to millions of Americans as co-host of Barbara Walters' hit daytime talk show, The View. While she was a member of the team, The View won its first daytime Emmy.
Ling has been working in television since she was 16. The Northern California native auditioned for and was chosen to be one of four hosts of Scratch, a nationally syndicated teen magazine show out of Sacramento. By the time she was 18, Ling had moved on to become one of the youngest reporters for Channel One News, the network seen in middle and high schools across the country. Despite working more than 40 hours a week, she also attended the University of Southern California. Before the age of 25, Ling became Channel One's senior war correspondent.
For Channel One, Ling hunted down cocaine processing labs in the Colombian jungle, conducted interviews with members of a notorious guerrilla group in Colombia, was flanked by 12 bodyguards while reporting on the civil war in Algeria, covered the refugee crisis in Albania and shared tea with the Dalai Lama. In 1996, she participated in a joint investigation with Time magazine into a Russian company accused of smuggling nuclear weapons. She was the first American television reporter to ever interview the company's owner. All told, she reported from more than two dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Algeria, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, India and Iran, and produced eight documentaries for PBS, several of which won awards.
Ling joined the cast of The View in 1999. In October 2000, she began work as a contributing editor for USA Weekend, researching and writing exclusive stories on a range of topics. Ling also hosted the television special Teen People's 20 Teens Who Will Change The World in February 2001.
In April, 2001, she fulfilled her late Uncle John's dream by running and completing the Boston Marathon—with an impressive time of 4:34—and raising money and awareness for pediatric cancer and the "Ali & Dad's Army" foundation.
Ling's incredible footage from Afghanistan helped provide insight for The Day It All Changed, a forum for teens that she hosted in September 2001 for the WB Network. Her hope is that young people begin to recognize their responsibility in this world, as they will be our future leaders.
Ling is also co-author, with anthropologist Joanne B. Eicher, of 2005's National Geographic book Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride. The book is a compelling exploration of all things female. Each chapter reveals the actions that connect a woman with herself, her family, her community, and other women.
Presentation Topics
National Geographic Reports: A Global Perspective
Keeping Lisa Ling in near constant motion, the National Geographic Channel's Explorer series takes viewers on unforgettable adventures and covers a wide range of human-interest stories, including the devastating natural disasters of the past year. Showing dramatic video clips from Explorer, Ling shares her adventures and her personal success story and advocates having an open mind and heart to the issues surrounding us.
China's Lost Little Girls
As a result of China's one-child policy, thousands of baby girls are abandoned in China every year, just for being girls. Right now in the U.S., there are more foreign adoptees from China than any other country in the world. Ling has covered China for more than a decade; hear her take on this phenomenon and the consequences that the rapidly growing gender imbalance may have on the world's fastest growing economy.
