Darby Saxbe (on Dad Brain)
6/10/20261 hr 48 min
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.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDax Shepard· Host0:00
Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert Experts on Expert. I'm Dax, Randall Shepherd, and I'm joined by Monica Lily Padman. This was a big exception. As you know, UCLA and USC are rivals.
Monica Padman· Host0:11
Okay.
Dax Shepard· Host0:12
They're the enemy- Mm-hmm ... if you went to UCLA. But I got over that so that we could host our guest, who is a professor at the University of Southern California- Yeah ... clinical psychologist and tenured full professor at the University of Southern California, Darby Saxbe. Also, my favorite name of a guest, I think we've had.
Monica Padman· Host0:29
Great name.
Dax Shepard· Host0:29
Darby Saxbe, what a fun, fun name. Uh, she has a new book out called Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men's Lives.
Monica Padman· Host0:39
This is really important stuff.
Dax Shepard· Host0:42
Yeah, as she will tell us in this, although historically only men have been researched for medicine, which is a, an atrocity, mostly only women have been researched for parenthood.
Monica Padman· Host0:51
Correct.
Dax Shepard· Host0:52
So there's, that's, that's the counterbalancing disparity. And so she has studied men, thank God, and, and she's studied dads, and w- now we've learned a lot about it, and it's very exciting.
Monica Padman· Host1:02
It's really fascinating chemically, like, what goes on. And, um- Yeah.
Dax Shepard· Host1:06
Dad bod, we get a scientific explanation of dad bod.
Monica Padman· Host1:08
We sure do.
Dax Shepard· Host1:09
Finally. [laughs] Please enjoy Darby...
Monica Padman· Host1:11
Saxbe.
Dax Shepard· Host1:13
Boom. We are supported by Quince. Every summer, I realize I become a real creature of habit. I end up reaching for the same few things over and over.
Monica Padman· Host1:23
Totally. You figure out what's comfortable for you, and suddenly that's just your entire personality.
Dax Shepard· Host1:28
Right, because I want things that are