Dad Brain

Brought to you by Penguin.

Parenthood changes men, of course it does. But in this engaging tour of the recent science professor and clinical psychologist Darby Saxbe reveals parenthood fundamentally changes men’s brains and biology.

Dad brains shrink (to become more efficient), testosterone levels drop (in a good way); men can even experience a form of postpartum depression, and of course their whole sense of meaning and identity can be challenged and transformed.

Based on two decades of research and one of the world’s only longitudinal studies of men’s brains as they become fathers, Dad Brain takes us from the author’s lab in Los Angeles, to a beachfront neuroimaging centre in Barcelona and a midwife’s office in Stockholm. It explores the different ways that men parent in different societies, how trends in men’s involvement with birth and parenting have shifted over the decades, class-based and racist assumptions about absent fathers, the rise of parenting outside the gender binary, old dads versus young dads, and much, much more.

Dad Brain explores all the ways in which becoming a father changes men, from their brain to their bodies, from their relationships to their role in society. It shows a good parent is not something you are, it is something you become, whatever your gender.

© Darby Saxbe 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026