Participate in the important questions of our time. The Forum is a conversation and speaker series that brings people together to explore challenges and opportunities that affect human flourishing through the lens of the humanities and civic imagination.

You’re invited to the November 18, 2025 gathering of The Forum featuring Rachel Barr.

How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend
Join The Charlotte Center on November 18 for an engaging conversation on how to rethink productivity and mental health in today’s world with neuroscientist, author and science communicator Rachel Barr. Known to millions online as Rachel the Neuroscientist, Barr blends humor, relatable storytelling, and cutting-edge research to help us understand our brains as allies rather than obstacles.

Barr will share how modern life distorts our natural capacities for focus, presence, and well-being—and how we can restore them. Drawing from her forthcoming book How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, she offers practical, science-backed strategies to strengthen connection, cultivate compassion, and live and work more fully.

About Rachel Barr
Rachel Barr is a neuroscientist, writer, and dynamic speaker with a gift for making science accessible and engaging. She holds a Master’s in molecular neuroscience and is completing her PhD researching how memory is formed during sleep. With more than two million followers across social media, she has become one of the internet’s most trusted and relatable guides to understanding the brain. Her debut book How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend will be released this fall.

Connect. Consider. Ignite. Doors open at 6:00 to mix and mingle. The program runs from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM including time for conversation, connections, and Q&A.

The Forum has a three-part structure:

• First third: Participants connect in small break-out groups prompted by a question;

• Middle third: Participants consider a presentation by a guest speaker that ends with a question posed to the audience;

• Final third: Participants discuss the question, igniting new ideas and possibilities.

Event ticket is $20. This is an in-person event with limited seating.

Location: McColl Center, 721 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202

About The Charlotte Center

The Charlotte Center is a community forum and civic action catalyst that invites curious people into meaningful connection and problem-solving informed by deep consideration of the human experience. Our mission is to help people and communities flourish.

The Charlotte Center is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. We are supported by individual donors, grants, sponsorships, and revenue from our programs. We invite you to join us.

thecharlottecenter.org