Elise Hu
Elise Hu is a host-at-large based at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Previously, she explored the future with her video series, Future You with Elise Hu, and served as the founding bureau chief and International Correspondent for NPR's Seoul office. She was based in Seoul for nearly four years, responsible for the network's coverage of both Koreas and Japan, and filed from a dozen countries across Asia.
Before joining NPR, she was one of the founding reporters at The Texas Tribune, a non-profit digital news startup devoted to politics and public policy. While at the Tribune, Hu oversaw television partnerships and multimedia projects, contributed to The New York Times' expanded Texas coverage, and pushed for editorial innovation across platforms.
An honors graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism, she previously worked as the state political reporter for KVUE-TV in Austin, WYFF-TV in Greenville, SC, and reported from Asia for the Taipei Times.
Her work at NPR has earned a DuPont-Columbia award and a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media for her video series, Elise Tries. Her previous work has earned a Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism, a National Edward R. Murrow award for best online video, and beat reporting awards from the Texas Associated Press. The Austin Chronicle once dubiously named her the "Best TV Reporter Who Can Write."
Outside of work, Hu has taught digital journalism at Northwestern University and Georgetown University's journalism schools and served as a guest co-host for TWIT.tv's program, Tech News Today. She's on the board of Grist Magazine and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Journalist Zahra Hankir draws a line connecting the cosmetic across civilizations, continents, and eras straight into today — as not only a beauty product but as a means of self expression and more. -
Jungian psychology is having a moment, owing to the TikTok-famous, self-published The Shadow Work Journal. But mind detritus becomes the stuff of great art in the hands of poet Adrienne Chung. -
Instead of viewing laziness as something we need to fix or overcome with caffeine or longer work hours, social psychologist Devon Price says to think of laziness as a sign you probably need a break. -
Fast fashion takes a toll on the environment and on workers. Here's how you can shop more sustainably and build a closet with a better impact. -
In a time of polarization and political division, NPR and StoryCorps explore whether simple but courageous acts — talking and listening — can be a countervailing force to national discord.
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Writing letters to strangers in almost all 50 states became an outlet to process anxieties about the pandemic. And a reminder of all the ways we are connected. -
Kacen Callender's new young adult novel centers on a queer, trans teen trying to find out who's behind a traumatizing transphobic act — a quest that takes him on an emotional roller coaster.
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A slim book about an everyday woman's life in South Korea became a runaway bestseller (and a movie), tapping into a growing feminism in this punishingly patriarchal country. It's now out in English.
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Cathy Park Hong's essays serve as a major reckoning, pulling no punches as the author uses her life's flashpoints to give voice to a wider Asian American experience, one with cascading consequences.
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The tech entrepreneur recently said he is making implants that connect our brains to our devices. So let's explore the ethics of human upgrading — and what technology has already done to us.
