Darby Saxbe
Darby Saxbe (Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives) is a clinical psychologist, tenured professor, and researcher on family stress and the transition to parenthood. Darby joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in an academic household, her parents’ dramatic divorce, and watching her surgeon father suddenly learn how to become the primary parent. Darby and Dax talk about why fatherhood research has lagged behind motherhood research, what happens chemically and neurologically to new dads, and how hunter-gatherer societies, Barcelona playgrounds, and Swedish “latte papas” reveal very different models of raising children. Darby explains why “dad bod” is a real thing, how dads’ brains physically change when they engage in caregiving, and why kids may need more community, boredom, roughhousing, and freedom than modern parenting usually allows.
Darby Saxbe: @darbysaxbephd
Armchair Expert: @armchairexppod
Dax Shepard: @daxshepard
Hosted by: Dax Shepard
Associate Producer: Emma Lawrence
Video Edit by: Todd Hughlett & Anthony Pacheco
Audio Edit by: Monica Padman & Emma Lawrence
Mixed & Mastered by: Daniel Good