Ellen Ruppel Shell

Nov 20, 2024 | smithsonianmag.com | Ellen Ruppel Shell |Francesco Lastrucci

Travel | In the young, tiny nation, inventive chefs are putting their own twists on classic regional dishes, using river trout, berries and other locally sourced delicacies to create some of the hautest cuisine around Every culture has a cuisine that tells its story. Slovenia—a Lilliputian nation about the size of New Jersey but with less than a quarter of its population—has many stories to tell.

Oct 30, 2024 | bostonglobe.com | Ellen Ruppel Shell

Recently, officials in Maine confirmed that a female North Atlantic right whale had died from injuries incurred while it was entangled in lobster fishing gear. This was truly tragic news: It’s estimated that there are only 360 right whales left on earth. The plight of the right whale and other endangered megafauna deserves our attention, but it is the fate of less charismatic creatures — like insects, birds, reptiles, and fish — that is even more tightly entwined with our own.

Aug 21, 2024 | bostonglobe.com | Ellen Ruppel Shell

Cover to “Slippery Beast” by Ellen Ruppel ShellHarry N. AbramsIt seems that these days everyone I meet asks this: How did I, a person of such strict urban sensibilities, come to write a book on the freshwater eel? On its face, this question is not easy to answer. After all, “eel people” (as they call themselves) tend to get hooked at an early age, typically while fishing with their fathers. That would not be me.

Aug 12, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Ellen Ruppel Shell |Walter Isaacson |Francoise Malby-anthony |Kate Sidley

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting. To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work.

Aug 7, 2024 | writersdigest.com | Ellen Ruppel Shell

It’s been 15 years—a teenage lifetime—but the memory sticks in my head like a bone in my throat. It was early morning, and I was in my home office scrolling lazily through emails when a strange message suddenly clinked into view. The sender was familiar—a famous name with whom I had no connection—and I assumed it was spam. (Media Training for Authors.)Curious, I opened it, expecting a con man’s hustle. What I read was much, much worse.