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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For more than 300 years, children have performed kabuki, Japan's classical theater, in the village of Damine. But as residents age or leave for cities, Damine is running out of young performers. -
The Kaesong Industrial Complex is the last remaining show of North-South cooperation, but it's closing indefinitely following the North's recent rocket launch and nuclear test. -
Taiwanese officials canceled traditional New Year celebrations and instead went to temples to pray for earthquake victims. -
Pyongyang says its launch is for an "observation satellite," but many nations view the launch as a concealed long-range missile test. So far, there has been no damage to boats or planes in the area. -
Rescue operations are underway in the city of Tainan, on the southern end of Taiwan, after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook the area.
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Many South Koreans have never heard of it, but a library in Seoul holds a vast collection of North Korean curiosities — textbooks, videos, fiction, even ginseng soap. Much of it can't be checked out. -
State media reported that the isolated nation has detained a student from the University of Virginia for "committing anti-republic activities." -
South Korea is again blaring news, music and propaganda from banks of loudspeakers along the border. At a minimum, it seems to annoy North Korea. -
As the world refocuses its attention on North Korea after the rogue nation's fourth nuclear test, in neighboring South Korea, day-to-day life has barely been affected. -
Deciphering events in North Korea often resembles long-distance psychoanalysis more than reporting. The country's latest nuclear test is no exception.
