Rachel Barr

Big Think Home

Rachel Barr

A woman with long wavy brown hair and thick eyebrows is smiling at the camera against a plain light gray background.

Rachel Barr holds a master’s degree in molecular neuroscience and wrote How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend while completing her PhD in the electrophysiology of memory and sleep.

Beyond the lab, her videos as "Rachel the Neuroscientist" demystify the fundamental principles of brain science, empowering her million-plus followers to make informed decisions about their mental health.

Born and raised in Fife, she studied in Bristol and is now based in Quebec, where she shares her home — and keyboard — with Gnocchi the cat.

Everything Articles
A tortoise wearing a blue "1st Place" ribbon on its shell, posed against a plain light background.
Smart Skills
The systems that build star performers
Many top performers start behind — and overtake the early leaders later.
Rachel Barr
Illustration featuring a brain, a profile of a man resting his face on his hand, a sketch of a head, and brain scan images in purple and green tones.
Thinking
3 philosophical debates from the 20th century that neuroscience is reshaping
Neuroscience isn’t dissolving philosophy’s hardest problems — it’s forcing us to rethink where they live.
Rachel Barr
A pencil sketch of a clown with raised arms, wearing a pointed hat and a polka-dot costume, on a blue and off-white background.
Neuropsych
Why your best ideas come after your worst
It's no wonder great writers swear by messy first drafts.
Rachel Barr
A red door with a gold doorknob is floating in the middle of a blue sky surrounded by white clouds.
Neuropsych
What the stages of sleep reveal about consciousness
"Ordinary dreams are, perhaps, the clearest articulation of what it is like to be."
Rachel Barr
Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.
© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.