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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Health officials in South Korea are coming under fire after cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, swelled from one to 13 inside of two weeks. -
The symbolic gesture was aimed at reunifying two nations still technically at war. But an event staged in the name of peace ended up exposing some distrust that's lasted for decades. -
An appeals court reduced the sentence of former Korean Air executive Heather Cho. She demanded that a plane return to the gate because her macadamia nuts weren't served in a manner to her liking. -
America's top diplomat says North Korea's muscle flexing on the Korean peninsula may lead to further international sanctions — and possibly a referral to the International Criminal Court. -
In Tokyo, a stylish new department store receptionist isn't a human at all. It's a lifelike silicone robot with movements so real, it's fooling some customers. -
Officials from South Korea's intelligence agency say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's latest high-level purge took place in front of hundreds of onlookers at a shooting range. -
Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district has become the first place in Japan – and all of East Asia — to recognize same-sex partnerships. It raises the possibility other parts of Japan will follow. -
Women who choose to raise their children out of wedlock are so rare in South Korean society that they face social ostracization, job losses and active encouragement to adopt out their kids. -
A risk-averse culture is making it a tough road for fresh ideas and fledgling Japanese startups. But venture backers are starting to see some signs of hope that new tech firms will take off. -
A South Korean student arrested for crossing illegally into North Korea tells CNN he is doing well, and that he went into the rogue state hoping to improve relations between North and South.
