Last month, I finished reading Darby Saxbe’s book, Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives, which is available for pre-order and is due for publication June 9th. The book could be a great Father’s Day gift for the bibliophilic dads out there! She graciously joined me to discuss and debate some of the major claims of her interesting book.
We touch briefly on how fatherhood changes men’s brains, hormones, relationships, and sense of purpose, while focusing most of our discussion on the culturally and politically charged questions attached to marriage, parenting, fertility, and gender roles in America today.
Much remains unaddressed, and Darby and I didn’t resolve all of our disagreements about the best strategies for promoting more men into healthy marriages and constructive fatherhood, but we both agree on the inestimable value of fathers contributing to the care, education, and socialization of children.
I have a ~1500 word review available at Goodreads where I share my immediate reactions to Dad Brain. It concentrates on my disagreements with the second, more prescriptive portion of the book, but I enjoyed the book a lot! I especially appreciated the candor about biological differences between the sexes and humility about what we can learn from the available science.
Look for a polished, updated, and more detailed version of my review here at Substack soon.
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