How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

Jan 8, 2026

Join neuroscientist Rachel Barr, author of How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, as she shares her journey from sports science to demystifying brain health. Discover the power of neuroplasticity and how our brains can adapt, recover, and reshape our habits. Rachel emphasizes the importance of self-compassion over fragile self-esteem and offers insights on turning small pleasures into robust stress relief. She also discusses the vital role of sleep in memory and encourages treating your brain with kindness through creativity and meaningful connections.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

From Struggling Student To Neuroscientist

Rachel discovered neuroscience after struggling in school and reading The Brain That Changes Itself.
That book gave her hope that her brain could change and led her into molecular neuroscience.

INSIGHT

Marketplace Of Identity Signals

Social identity signals on platforms are often purchased rather than earned, causing a mismatch between who we appear to be and who we are.
Rachel Barr warns this marketplace of identities creates chronic estrangement from self and others.

ADVICE

Treat Self-Care Like An Experiment

Put new wellness practices on probation and experiment with them for a set time while taking notes on personal effects.
Discard interventions that harm you even if they are popular or evidence-based.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Your brain is the most remarkable thing in the known universe. Always trying to mend itself, and always trying to protect you, it’s in a constant state of flux — adapting, reconfiguring, finding new pathways. And it has an astonishing capacity for recovery.

Rachel Barr struggled through years of devastating loss, heartache, and uncertainty until neuroscience gave her the first spark of self-belief she had felt in her adult life — and proof that, because of the brain’s near-infinite potential for neuroplastic change, it’s never too late to carve out neural pathways to form new habits, new skills, and new ways of thinking.
Whether you want to nerd-out on neuroscientific acronyms, finally understand what’s going on in your head, or take refuge in a book that’s like a warm hug for your mind, How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend is a delight-filled, evidence-based guide to taking better care of your brain — so it, in turn, will take better care of you.

Our guest is: Rachel Barr, who holds a master’s degree in molecular neuroscience. She wrote How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend while working on her Ph.D. Her videos as “Rachel the Neuroscientist” demystify the fundamental principles of brain science, empowering people to make informed decisions about their mental health. She was born and raised in Fife, studied in Bristol, and is now based in Quebec, with Gnocchi the cat.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network