As part of our special issue focused on glia, we are having conversations with both established leaders in the field and those earlier in their careers to discuss how the field has evolved and where it is heading. Here, we speak with Lucas Cheadle, assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We spoke about his passion for studying glia and synapses, and about his experiences as an Indigenous and transgender neuroscientist.