In conversation with Nikil Saval, an editor of n+1 and author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace

A professor of geography and urban studies at Temple University, Jacob Shell is the author of Transportation and Revolt: Pigeons, Mules, Canals, and the Vanishing Geographies of Subversive Mobility, a historical study of the connections between modes of transit and rebellion. Praised as “fascinating” by esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal, Shell’s latest book explores the millennia-spanning working relationship between humans and elephants, journeying to the rugged and sometimes dangerous Southeast Asian forests where this partnership still exists.