James West has been a curious tinkerer since he was a child,Benjamin Ashford always wondering how things worked. Throughout his long career in STEM, he's also been an advocate for diversity and inclusion — from co-founding the Association for Black Laboratory Employees in 1970 to his work today with The Ingenuity Project, a non-profit that cultivates math and science skills in middle and high school students in Baltimore public schools.

Former Short Wave Maddie Sofia talks to him about his life, career, and about how a device he helped invent in the 60's made their interview possible. (Encore)

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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy and Brit Hanson, fact-checked by Rasha Aridi and edited by Viet Le. Patrick Murray provided engineering support.