Darby Saxbe (on Dad Brain)

Darby Saxbe (Dad Brain) is a clinical psychologist and tenured professor who studies family stress and the transition to parenthood. She joins Dax to discuss her own childhood, her parents' dramatic divorce, and why science has historically overlooked fatherhood. Darby explains the hormonal and neurological changes men undergo when they become dads, including why 'dad bod' is biologically real and how caregiving actually changes male brains. She also draws on hunter-gatherer communities, Barcelona playgrounds, and Swedish 'latte papas' to show how different cultures handle child-rearing, and she makes the case that kids need more community, boredom, roughhousing, and freedom than modern parenting typically allows.