My work's main focus is culture — which I define as whatever keeps you glued to the couch, or whatever motivates you enough to get up off that couch. So: everything.
Most recently, I worked as an on-camera correspondent for VICE News Tonight. My documentaries have appeared on HBO, VICE TV, and Showtime, my writing in the Guardian and Los Angeles Times, and my work has won three Emmys and a Pulitzer Prize. As a scholar, I hold a PhD in Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture from Cornell University, and wrote a dissertation on Japanese hip-hop.
I've also established the world's largest publicly-accessible collection of Japanese hip-hop music and materials.
Read on if you'd like specifics.
📩 Contact
I'm @dexdigi on 🦋 bluesky and 📷 Instagram, this is my 🔗 LinkedIn, or you can 📧 email me here.
🗃️Downloadable Files
Press Photos (right click any the images below to download)
💼 Work
On-Camera Correspondent
VICE News, 2016 - 2023
My work has appeared on HBO, VICE TV, and Showtime. I have been nominated three times for News Emmys, the first for coverage of the opioid crisis in Ohio, the second for a mini-documentary filmed entirely in virtual reality, the third for a segment on police behavior after George Floyd protests. I've also received three LA Press Club nominations.
I cover everything from politics to culture to policing in the United States. Internationally, I've covered suicide crises in Japan, artificial intelligence in China, academic competitions in Jamaica, and electoral politics in South Africa.
Host/Producer
RESET/The Unauthorized Guide to Video Games, 2021
A 10-episode series covering the unseen world of video games. From the US military using game technology to recruit teenagers (and treat PTSD), to the "losers" of the esports industry, to what happens a multi-billion dollar franchise notices that black players are modifying their game, to uncovering a lost '90s arcade game that could have been a hit - but instead was almost erased from history. RESET goes behind the industry hype, to meet the people who are changing the ways we play.
Featuring segments shot in my backyard, in Brooklyn, and at the Pentagon.
Airing on VICE TV in the US, on Canal+ in France, and various other channels internationally.
Reporter
Los Angeles Times, 2015 - 2016
Contributed reporting to the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the shootings in San Bernardino. I also wrote on just about everything, in addition to working as a new media producer, doing everything from photography to graphic design to podcast production.
Freelance Writer
Various, 2014 - 2015
Wrote for various outlets, including NPR, The Japan Times, Fader, Al Jazeera, Guardian, and others.
🛠 Skills/Interests
💻 Technology
DJing / Music Production ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I've done occasional music production work, composing songs/themes that have appeared on air on HBO and VICE TV, as well as the theme for a (now defunct) baseball podcast at the LA Times, and the theme for the (still running!) technology podcast, kill switch.
I once made 100 songs over the course of a year on a single pocket-sized synthesizer, just for fun.
Programming / Linux ⭐️
Though I don't use much of this anymore, I am self-taught in web design, and know enough Python to get myself into trouble. My most known ‘product’ is a simple setup to allow journalists to download their work (complete with stats) from YouTube.
Other than that, my interest in technology is mostly as a hobby. I'm less interested in shiny new things than with how to re-use old technology (which is why Gunpei Yokoi will always be a hero of mine). My current daily driver is a old Thinkpad running Pop!_OS Linux.
🗣 Languages
🎴 Japanese
Fluent (written and spoken)
🀄️ Chinese (Mandarin)
Reading: intermediate Speaking: elementary
🌱 Spanish
Intermediate
📜 Lectures/Presentations
Dragon Ball Z: Piccolo is (not) Black
Invited lecture by Japan Foundation New York, 2025
Will the Government ban TikTok?
Invited Lecture at Colby College, 2024
The OG of Black Revolutionary Anime Anime Expo Los Angeles, 2019
88 Rising at Harvard Harvard, 2018 (served as Moderator)
Can the Japanese Rap?
Pop-Up Magazine, 2016 (four dates: in NY, SF + Oakland, and LA)
📜 Academic Publications
The Formula Behind Japanese Hip-hop’s Right Wing
in Social Identities, 2015
Can the Japanese Rap? in Two Haiku and a Microphone: Traveling Texts and the Work of Afro-Japanese Cultural Production, 2015
📜 Courses Taught
Why is Japan so Cool? (UCLA, Summer 2021)
A course that considers Japanese perceptions of the concept of 'cool', focusing on the '60s, '80s, and early 2000s — and then focuses on the 'outsiders' in both American and Japanese pop culture, and how they affect each other. Conducted entirely via the Discord app, with final essays posted online. (I also taught an expanded version at UC Riverside, Fall 2022)
hey guys let’s talk about cool stuff #swag (Cornell, Spring 2015)
A course on the concept of 'cool', and how it's influenced by our perceptions of race, gender, and belonging - and how that affects the rest of the world. The syllabus went a bit viral online, so I ran the course simultaneously on the Internet for anyone who wanted to join in.
And yes, that is the real title of the class. I had meetings about this.
Introductory Japanese Language [JAPAN 1101] (Cornell, Fall 2013)
TA. Conducted lectures and classes entirely in Japanese, tutoring students in the language.
Hip-Hop: Beats, Rhymes and Life [MUSIC 2390] (Cornell, Fall 2012)
TA. Also gave in-class lectures. Here's a sample lecture on the history of hip-hop music production.
🏆 Some Awards
News Emmy (Win) (2023)
Outstanding Arts, Culture or Entertainment Coverage in "The Dark Side of Manga", as translator and fact-checking
News Emmy (Win) (2021)
Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Newscast, for segment in "America Uprising", as on-camera correspondent
News Emmy (nomination) (2020)
Outstanding Culture Story, for "A Dose of Humanity in Virtual Reality", as on-camera correspondent + producer
News Emmy (nomination) (2017)
Outstanding Hard News Feature Story in a Newscast, for "The Rise of Carfentanil"
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking Reporting (2016)
Contributed reporting to the Los Angeles Times coverage of mass shooting in San Bernardino
Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (2014)
in Tokyo, Japan. Visiting student at Waseda University.
📚 Education
PhD, East Asian Studies (2020)
Cornell University
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