After volunteering as a high school teacher in the slums of Jamaica and serving the people of Nigeria during a devastating civil war, Jock Brandis found himself mentally exhausted and disillusioned. He left the service life for work in the film industry, a career move that took him to Wilmington, N.C. But a colleague persuaded Brandis to return to Africa, where he met a group of women peanut shellers in Mali. He wound up inventing a peanut shelling machine – the Universal Nut Sheller – to help them with their work. Its invention led Brandis to found the Full Belly Project, a Wilmington-based nonprofit that designs technical solutions for workers in developing countries.
Brandis joins host Frank Stasio to talk about his devotion to making low-tech machines that solve problems around the globe.
This program originally aired on January 24, 2011. For a link to the audio, click here.
