This is an ABC podcast.

By his 40s, Ben Barris had built an impressive career.

He was a neurobiologist at Stanford, the head of his own lab, and he'd made a breakthrough discovery.

He discovered a lot about the functioning of the glia, which are particular kinds of brain cells.

But that's not actually the story we're focusing on today.

We're focusing on Ben's personal story.

So Ben had been born Barbara.

And at this point, in the mid-90s, he was still known to the world as a woman.

He would soon undergo a transition, but he had a lot to worry about.

He was extremely worried that the scientific establishment, the community, and his colleagues

wouldn't accept him. He didn't know really what would happen. He didn't know if students

would still want to join his lab or if he'd still get invited to conferences. So he had a lot

of trepidation about undergoing this

transition. But he went through with it. And he found, to his surprise, that the scientific

community did react, but not in the way that he expected. What he found was that people who did not

know that he had transitioned, who were just meeting him and being introduced to him as Ben for the first time, responded to him with more respect.

They gave him the benefit of the doubt.

He found that he was not interrupted in meetings anymore.

And he was even at a scientific conference where another scientist was overheard saying,

well, Ben does really good work.

His work is so much better than his sisters.

Wow.

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