Scott Galloway recently told Derek Thompson on his podcast that childbirth is “disgusting” and “unnatural” for dads. I’ve studied fathers' experience of childbirth in my lab for years, and I think Galloway is wrong. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/scott-gall...

My newsletter this week is about whether it's more fun to be a dad. I report on research finding that fathers enjoy parenting more than mothers do, and that millennial men are increasing their childcare time. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/dads-reall...

New essay about feminism, family formation, and why a lot of feminism is better than some feminism when it comes to the welfare of kids and parents. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/has-femini...

Don’t let Russell Vought trick Congress into destroying science by removing multiyear funding limits from the NIH funding bill.

My newsletter this week is about whether feminism has hurt men’s economic prospects, led to discriminatory hiring, and increased inflation. Lots of spicy stuff to unpack! Link in comments

In my newsletter this week, I shared my starting-a-Substack tips and told the true story of being trolled by my 14-year-old son. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/how-to-win...

I have an essay in @theargument.bsky.social today, diving into the science on gender differences and making the case that, Mars and Venus style arguments aside, biological essentialism isn't well-supported by the evidence. www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-forbid...

I wrote a newsletter this week about how I used to get panic attacks, but then I went to clinical psychology graduate school and figured out how to deal with them. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/how-to-cur...

New essay on monogamy: why it evolved, why marriage is good for stable societies, and why young people (especially young women) might be losing interest in it. open.substack.com/pub/darbysax...

At #ISDP2025! 🧠 Catch my poster (P2.47) on sleep + cingulum white matter in first-time fathers. Thanks to Quester for helping me get this poster organized! (www.quester.xn--tech)-sw3b @darbysaxbe.bsky.social

My new essay this week is all about the unexpected twists and turns of the design process for the cover of my new forthcoming book...and includes some very silly rejected ideas. substack.com/home/post/p-...

It's true! We've written five of these one-day papers so far.

My new essay describes our lab's research on how face masks affect the brain's processing of emotion. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/how-covid-...

I just published my first piece with The Argument, and it's about why parents should let their kids go to the roller rink on their own. You're not the captain of the parenting police www.theargumentmag.com/p/youre-not-...

Massive turnout at the #NoKings protest in Pasadena. Calm, peaceful, multigenerational crowd. Patriotic signs and American flags everywhere. I’m still waiting for my check from Soros.

Great crowd at USC for a rally celebrating our decision to say no to the Compact! A letter opposing the Compact was signed by 1500 members of our university community. @ryanboyd.bsky.social @aaup.org @sanjaymadhav1.bsky.social

I wrote about whether universities are "too woke" and suffering from "ideological capture." darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/are-univer...

Our paper is finally out @darbysaxbe.bsky.social @genesisflores.bsky.social! Expectant fathers raised in riskier environments show lower white matter integrity in limbic regions and less effective parenting, even controlling for depressive symptoms. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The RCGD series on the Science of Social Relationships continues Monday with a talk from @darbysaxbe.bsky.social on the transition to fatherhood. The talk will review studies on hormone and brain changes across the transition to parenthood in first-time human fathers. buff.ly/92KtRNS

New essay today about how parents of the olden days were actually TERRIBLE, the phenomenon of "baby farming," and why intensive parenting is a modern invention. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/the-bad-pa...

Really important and sobering analysis

The party of “viewpoint diversity” and “campus free speech” is back at it

Our new study in Emotion! Parents report higher satisfaction yet lower daily happiness- the 'parenting paradox'. So in the transition to parenthood, how do we study well-being? We studied how new fathers adapt by examining meaning/purpose and brain connectivity. psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

I often talk about the fact that MAGA does not access the same news as the left wing. I present to you Exhibit A. Dr. Daskalakis’ resignation letter excoriated RFK Jr. and shared that RFK Jr. was lying to the public, manipulating data, and ordering unethical actions. This what Fox News served.

🧠 Thanks to research from @darbysaxbe.bsky.social we know fatherhood transforms men’s brains in profound ways, and many dads face postpartum depression, sleep challenges and stigma. 🔗 Read more about how we can support new fathers in #ECM2025: earlychildhoodmatters.online/2025/dad-bra...

Reps and Dems are living in different societies... Report linked in comments.

This is a wild ride of a read for all kinds of reasons. Researchers and people who read about research on the internet should all find some valuable stuff in here. The incidental note that THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF OBJECTS ON A TYPICAL FRIDGE IS 55 is just the icing on the cake for me.

This week I wrote about how my research on stress, cortisol, and clutter got misinterpreted by the media and ended up in the AI slop factory. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/cogsplaine...

🎙️ON AIR: @faith-hill.bsky.social, Fatherhood and Adolescent Services' Ignacio Ferrey, @menhavingbabies.bsky.social's Ron Poole-Dayan, @darbysaxbe.bsky.social and therapist Ken Epstein on single fatherhood. ❓ Are you a single dad or were you raised by one? What's your story? 📻 Listen:

TUE at 9AM: @faith-hill.bsky.social, Fatherhood and Adolescent Services' Ignacio Ferrey, @menhavingbabies.bsky.social's Ron Poole-Dayan, @darbysaxbe.bsky.social and therapist Ken Epstein on the experience of single fatherhood. ❓ Are you a single dad or were you raised by one? What's your story?

Yes it's actually good that we have fMRI to know this, because men's parental bond has been understudied & essentialist narratives continue to insist that only women have "maternal instinct." Showing how the male brain responds to infant stimuli helps us appreciate human adaptations to fatherhood!

Thank you for spotlighting our lab's new study, led by the indefatigable @philnewsomejr.bsky.social !

👀 New "dad brain" research from @darbysaxbe.bsky.social; Darby Saxbe will join RCGD's fall seminar series on the science of social relationships-- with a talk on the transition to fatherhood 9/29. Check out the series that kicks off next week! rcgd.isr.umich.edu/news-events/...

Fresh off the presses brand-new DAD BRAIN research from our lab!

I have a new essay up about how we frequently blame feminism for all the drawbacks of late-stage capitalism. I also started doing indie rock recommendations. Smash that subscribe button! darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/are-we-mad...

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This is one of the biggest reasons why I research fatherhood and the fathering brain. In a time of rising isolation and hopelessness, becoming a hands-on parent offers men a route towards greater meaning, purpose, and social connection.

Just posted a new essay about why left-wingers are miserable and how the Democrats should use the insights of clinical psychology to build a happier movement. darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/how-the-le...

Our federal government is currently spending more money deporting childcare workers than fixing our broken, patchy childcare system. 19thnews.org/2025/07/chil...

My new Substack is about the paradox of the partisan happiness gap: conservatives are happier than liberals, but left-wing societies produce happier people. open.substack.com/pub/darbysax...

I know there's a ton of bad political news out there, but this kind of experiment makes me genuinely hopeful. I'd love to see a campaign afoot to do this in every state. www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

My new op-ed in the @nytimes. I argue that Iranians are caught in a state of “moral paralysis,” a psychological trap set by the Islamic Republic itself. It pits two of our most sacred values against each other: liberation vs. self-determination. (1/2) www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/o...

I was on NPR’s On Point today, talking about my father brain research w/ Megna Chakrabarti. It was a fun conversation and I was psyched for it to go live, but within an hour of airing, I got an unsolicited note from a male listener that my vocal upspeak sounded "adolescent and unserious."

What do the NYC mayoral election, a Danish TV show, and the prospects of ever electing a female president have in common? My latest Substack is my nerdiest yet! darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/why-hasnt-...

A few months ago I posted about cuts to medical research & got lots of comments (on the other site) about how the deficit was too big + we needed to spend less. Now we're spending billions on ICE + a potential war. Money flows only when we are terrorizing people at home or bombing them abroad.

The Iraq War cost over a TRILLION dollars. Imagine if - 20 years ago - we had invested that money into early childhood education, or climate mitigation, or scientific and medical research, or building housing? Where would our country be now?

The NYT has an article today about an openly antisemitic, white nationalist law student given an award at the University of Florida. Wasn't the Trump admin cutting funding to universities that tolerate antisemitism? Will they punish Florida? Not holding my breath... www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/u...

Last February, I led a proposal submission that encompassed six months, hundreds of hours, four institutions, a massive team, and and 256 pages. NSF just informed us that the entire Biology Integration Institute program was archived and our proposal would not even be reviewed. With a form email.

Happy Father’s Day! I have a new post up in Slate about how men’s household contributions may be the key to unlocking higher birth rates. slate.com/technology/2... I also wrote about it on Substack open.substack.com/pub/darbysax...

This is really great! Such a smart initiative.