In the past, many institutions produced similar types of scientists: researchers with a shared educational history who go straight from school to university then do a PhD and postdoctoral research.But not everyone follows this path. We meet two researchers who forged research careers later in life, and took very different routes to get there.How valuable has their previous life experience been in their current career? What skills did they learn along the way? And how did they overcome the obstacles they faced?This episode is part of Science diversified, a seven-part podcast series exploring how having a more diverse range of researchers ultimately benefits not only the scientific enterprise, but also the wider world.Each episode in this series concludes with a sponsored slot from the International Science Council (ISC) about how it is exploring diversity in science. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.