Author Talk: Darby Saxbe, PhD — Dad Brain - with Jerusalem Demsas

Watch author Darby Saxbe discuss " Dad Brain" at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

A groundbreaking exploration of the science and significance of fatherhood that shows great dads are made, not born

Over the last decade, we’ve learned more about the transformative power of parenthood—biologically, psychologically, and socially—than ever before. But while the experience of motherhood has attracted well-deserved attention, fatherhood has remained overlooked and, often, misunderstood.

Now, in Dad Brain, field-leading psychologist Darby Saxbe, PhD, explains how becoming a father changes men, from their bodies and brain architecture to their hormones and sense of purpose. Inspired by her relationship with her dad, Saxbe has studied fathers and families for over twenty years. In her first book, she takes readers behind the scenes of her new research and around the world, from hunter-gatherers in the Congo to contemporary suburban dads, and into her pioneering studies of how parenthood shapes men’s brains and lives.

Darby Saxbe, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California. She has published over eighty scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and secured more than $3 million in grant funding for her research. She earned awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research in Child Development and was a Fulbright fellow. Dr. Saxbe has written for outlets such as the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, and Scientific American, and consulted on bestselling books, including Eve Rodsky’s Fair Play. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from UCLA and her BA in English and psychology from Yale University.

Saxbe is in conversation with Jerusalem Demsas, the Editor-in-Chief of The Argument. Most recently, she was a staff writer at The Atlantic where she created and hosted the podcast Good on Paper. Her work has spanned such issues as citizen voice, federalism, labor economics, NIMBY-ism, gentrification, race, gender, and the politics of exclusion. Demsas is the author of On The Housing Crisis: Land, Development, and Democracy. She previously wrote for Vox as a policy journalist and co-hosted the The Weeds.

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