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  • Published: 11 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529970586
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $40.00

Dad Brain

The New Science of Fatherhood and How it Shapes Men's Lives




Engaging tour of the impact of fatherhood on men, from changes to their bodies to their brain architecture, from their hormones to their sense of purpose, challenging the gendered assumptions associated with ‘maternal instinct’, from a professor, clinical psychologist and world-leading researcher on fatherhood.

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.

  • Published: 11 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529970586
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $40.00

About the author

Darby Saxbe

Darby Saxbe is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California who has conducted one of the world’s only longitudinal studies on men’s brains as they become fathers. A former Fulbright fellow, she has published over eighty scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, written for the New York Times and Scientific American and has earned awards from the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research in Child Development.

Praise for Dad Brain

In this entertaining and fascinating book, Darby Saxbe unpacks how fatherhood transforms men's lives, from their brains to their careers. It's a must-read for everyone who values the importance of dads

Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play

An eye-opening exploration of fatherhood and its impact on a child’s life – and on a partnership, a family and society at large

Aliza Pressman, author of The Five Principles of Parenting

A wonderful book about the biology of fatherhood and an important text about parenthood from an accomplished scientist

Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes' Error

A masterful, science-packed, story-full journey for mums and dads alike, offering unique and practical insights

Daniel J. Siegel, author of The Whole Brain Child

Darby Saxbe’s deeply researched and entertaining book fills a crucial gap in our understanding . . . with a refreshing new take on fatherhood through the lens of neurology and hormones . . . a call to appreciate fathers and to bust the stereotypes of fathers as clueless or uncaring . . . Ultimately, [Saxbe’s] cause is not just to explain the new science of the Dad brain: she also urges us to think more broadly about masculinity

Camilla Cavendish, Financial Times

A book for a deep read and a terrific addition to the increasing number of fatherhood books

New Scientist

[An] accessible account of the latest science of fatherhood . . . fun . . . interesting . . . valuable

Literary Review

Saxbe wants to debunk the stereotype that parenting does not come naturally to men and . . . takes particular aim at the myth that they "lack the biology for it" . . . [She shows that] intention and hands-on time with a child mean that a father’s level of involvement – and the biology that influences how good a dad they are – can be turned up or down like a dial

Sunday Times

This is the difference that is at the core of Saxbe’s fascinating book. Motherhood is obligatory. You can’t escape a kid that is inside you. Fatherhood, though? It is "facultative". It’s "an optional but very useful adaptation". And when you choose that option, when you eschew the sports car and start listening to the contractions again, your body responds in more subtle — but no less significant — ways. That day, in a biological as well as psychological sense, [you] become a dad

Tom Whipple, The Times

Wonderful . . . Dad Brain is probably the most I have related to anything I have watched, listened to or read since . . . I met my own amazing, screaming, teeny-tiny baby daughter . . . I like Saxbe's book chiefly because it tells us why becoming a dad is so incredibly good for you – and, specifically, your brain

Sam Fishwick, Independent