I’m Elise.
I’m a journalist, podcaster, and an author based in Los Angeles. Currently I’m the host of TED Talks Daily, the flagship podcast from TED conferences. Fresh episodes are downloaded a million times each day, in every country in the world. You can also hear me as the host of Accenture’s multiple award-winning Built for Change, and as a co-host of Forever 35, a woman-focused show about how we take care of ourselves.
I’m also co-founder of an LA-based podcast production company, Reasonable Volume. We make bespoke podcasts for brands and individuals. Check it out!
I previously worked as a TV correspondent at VICE News and for the bulk of my career was a host and correspondent for the radio and digital network NPR.
Between 2015 and 2018, I spent lots of time on planes, trains and automobiles as an international correspondent and NPR’s first-ever Seoul bureau chief. My coverage area included both Koreas and Japan and I chased stories across the Asian region. I returned to the US in fall 2018 to explore the future through a video show, Future You with Elise Hu. (It rhymes!)
I joined NPR in 2011 after helping launch the digital news startup, The Texas Tribune, where I oversaw video, the flagship podcast and reported for our partners at The New York Times. Previously, I worked as a television reporter in Texas, South Carolina and Missouri.
An honors graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s School of Journalism, my work has earned a duPont-Columbia award, a Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism, a National Edward R. Murrow award for best online video, a Gracie Award for hosting, a Webby award for podcasting, and The Austin Chronicle once dubiously named me the “Best TV Reporter Who Can Write.”
My book, FLAWLESS, came out in 2023. It’s a non-fiction exploration of beauty, consumerism, and womanhood. I’m also a board member at Grist and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
About FLAWLESS
FLAWLESS braids international reporting, cultural commentary and memoir to explore the global rise of K-beauty culture, the power of appearance standards worldwide, and the simultaneous pleasure and pain of having to keep up with beauty norms. I used Korea’s comparatively intense appearance expectations and practices as a jumping off point to explore the way technological advancement is likely to only increase the pressure on all of us to look “better,” if we have the money to do it.
FLAWLESS is available now in the US, UK, and markets around the world.
FAQs
The answer to your question(s) might be found in one of these interviews with me! If not, read on…
How did you get your start in journalism?
I decided I wanted to be a journalist when I was eight years old because it seemed fun to be out in the field, asking people questions and chasing your curiosities (and wanderlust) for a living. It didn’t even seem like a real job!
I went to undergraduate journalism school at the University of Missouri-Columbia and hoped to end my time there with a Fulbright scholarship abroad. Rejected by Fulbright, I sent out a bunch of tapes (yes, they were VHS tapes back then) and talked my way into a job as a television reporter at the CBS affiliate in Waco. Sexy, I know! From there I went on to work in South Carolina and found my passion in political reporting. The rest, as they say, is my adult life.
RELATED QUESTIONS: What’s the best way to land a job in journalism? | What kind of qualities or skills helped along the way? | What advice do you give journalism graduates? (scroll down for the advice)
How did you become a foreign correspondent?
I didn’t want to live in Washington anymore, I am globally-minded and the timing worked out.
The long answer is: I didn’t think it would be possible in the journalism business today to be sent abroad, financially backed by a large news organization. But I was fortunate to be working at a place that still cares a great deal about international news.
If you want to do it or get a taste of it, applying for international reporting fellowships and grants is a great place to start.
RELATED QUESTIONS: What has the role of risk played in your career? | What about balance and down time? | Where should I eat in Seoul? | What should I do in Japan?
What do you recommend doing in LA?
Koreatown is my favorite part of the city, whether it’s seeing a show at The Wiltern, getting a dessert (like the famous croffle) at Bumsan Milk Bar, savoring all the delicious meat at Korean barbecue (Pigya, Jeong Yuk Jeom and the OG Chosun Galbi are my go-tos), and/or spending hours at a Korean spa (jimjilbang) where you can soak in alternating hot or cold pools and take naps in cozy saunas.
Sportswise I enjoy watching high-paced LA Kings hockey at the Staples Center (I’m still calling in Staples, come at me crypto bros), and I cannot recommend more highly catching the women’s expansion team, our beloved Angel City FC. That’s a stadium and an experience you can’t miss.
I’m a Westsider, so my “locals” for drinking are Alibi Room (which features Roy Choi’s KOGI taco truck food), Cozy Inn, which has an excellent juke box I’m always spending all my money at, and Corner Door, which is just a few blocks down the street from me.
Should I have children?
That’s a personal question, but I get it more than I expect. The best answer to this that I’ve come across is by Cheryl Strayed, writing as Dear Sugar. I refer you to her.
RELATED QUESTIONS: What advice would you give to others who want to have demanding jobs and small children? | What’s the most valuable thing your mother taught you? | What’s it like to have babies and parent in South Korea? | What is your relationship between parenting and writing?
Can we meet up for my school project / niche website / new podcast?
I respond depending on the specificity of the request. If I am in town or it’s easy for us to connect, then most likely yes! Get in touch.
Where are you from? No, where are you really from?*
Gah! I was born in St. Louis, Missouri but I claim Dallas, Texas, where I grew up. So I am from Missouri and Texas. My father was born in China and defected during the harrowing Cultural Revolution, in the late 1960’s. My mother was born and raised in Taiwan, which is a place full of foodies and food-obsessed people.
*This is a joke question. Don’t ask Americans who appear “ethnic” where they are “really from.”