The blog
The written versions of the videos, plus what I'm learning as a dad, a programmer, and a small investor — with the research to back it up.
· fatherhood · hormones · your body
Does Testosterone Really Drop When You Become a Father?
Yes — and in the biggest study, evening levels fell by about a third. Here's the real data on what fatherhood does to a man's hormones, and why evolution built it that way.
· fatherhood · bonding · brain science
How Long Does It Take for a Dad to Bond With His Baby?
Weeks to months for many fathers — and the trigger isn't the birth, it's contact. What the research says about the father-baby bond, and how to speed it up.
· fatherhood · relationships · practical
How to Actually Support Your Partner After the Baby (From a Dad Who Learned on the Job)
What I learned taking care of my wife in the newborn months — and the research on why a father's support measurably changes a mother's recovery.
· fatherhood · new dad tips · psychology
10 Things Nobody Tells New Dads (I Learned Them the Hard Way)
The bond isn't instant, your hormones change, and one in ten of us struggle in silence. The honest new-dad list I wish someone had handed me.
· fatherhood · mental health · paternal postpartum depression
When Does Depression Hit New Dads? The Months Nobody Is Watching
One major analysis found paternal depression peaking between months 3 and 6 — right when the visitors stop coming. The timeline, the debate, and the warning signs.
· fatherhood · relationships · psychology
Feeling Useless: The Third-Wheel Weeks Every New Dad Knows
The baby wants only your partner, and you're standing there holding a burp cloth. What research says about sidelined fathers — and the job that's actually yours.
· fatherhood · identity · relationships
Mourning Your Old Life Doesn't Make You a Bad Dad
Grieving your freedom, your identity, even your old marriage after a baby arrives is documented, normal, and survivable. On demolition and rebuilding.
· fatherhood · mental health · psychology
Roughly One in Ten New Dads Struggle — Here Are the Numbers Nobody Mentions
Paternal perinatal depression is real, measurable, and mostly invisible. What the meta-analyses actually say, including the parts that are still debated.
· fatherhood · brain science · neuroscience
The Dad Brain Is Real: Fatherhood Physically Reshapes Your Head
Brain scans of first-time fathers on two continents show measurable changes after the baby arrives. What shrinks, what grows, and what it might mean.
· fatherhood · psychology · bonding
The Day I Became a Father, the Bond Wasn't There Yet — and That's Normal
I cried at the first photo of my son, then felt the floor open. The science says a father's bond is built by contact, not issued at birth.
· fatherhood · bonding · psychology
The Loud Little Stranger: What No One Tells You About the First Weeks
You expect instant magic. Sometimes you get a screaming lodger you've never met. Why the father-baby bond takes months, and why that's not a defect.
· fatherhood · mental health · men's health
The Pressure to Be the Rock — and What It Quietly Costs New Dads
Be strong, provide, don't complain: the unwritten job description of a new father. What the research says the 'rock' strategy gives — and takes.
· fatherhood · mental health · practical
What Actually Helps New Dads — Ranked by the Evidence
Paternity leave, skin-to-skin, owning one baby task, one outside connection: what research really supports for struggling new fathers, and what's just plausible advice.
· fatherhood · sleep science · your body
What Broken Sleep Actually Does to a New Dad
Parents' sleep doesn't recover for up to six years — and by objective measures, new dads are sleepier than anyone admits. The science of running on fumes.
· fatherhood · mental health · men's health
Why a Struggling New Dad Looks Angry, Not Sad
Male depression often wears a disguise — irritability, overwork, withdrawal — and the standard screening tools were built for mothers. The science of the missed men.
· fatherhood · your body · hormones
Your Body Knows You're a Dad Before You Do
New fathers' testosterone drops by up to a third, and the more hands-on the dad, the bigger the drop. The strange biology of becoming a father.
· channel news
Welcome to Norbo Explains — the crayon channel gets a home
What this website is, why the channel draws everything badly on purpose, and what you'll find here every week.
· longevity · blue zones · nutrition
The Blue Zones Are Real. The Blue Zones Diet Isn't.
I tried to pick one of the five Blue Zones to move to. The ages held up, the famous diet didn't, and the real secret turned out to be a hill.
· psychology · famous experiments · obedience
The Milgram Experiment Never Proved Blind Obedience
The famous 65% came from one version out of more than twenty, and the only direct order made people stop. What the shock experiment really showed.
· ancient humans · neanderthals · evolution
Why a Neanderthal Pocketed a Shell He Could Never Use
A Neanderthal kept a small shell for no practical reason. Ages later, a human in the same cave did the same thing. Here's why that tiny habit matters.
· ancient humans · nutrition myths · history of medicine
Why 300,000 Years of Organic Eating Didn't Buy a Longer Life
Our ancestors ate the most natural diet possible for 300,000 years and still lived far shorter lives than us. The reason we don't is not the food.
· your body · goosebumps · brain science
Why Do You Get Goosebumps? A 150-Year-Old Skin Mystery
Cold, fear, and a good song all set off the same tiny bumps. What goosebumps are really for — and the 2020 finding that rewrote the story.
· your brain · memory · psychology
Why Can't You Remember Being a Baby? The Answer Just Changed
A 2025 Yale scan showed babies do form memories. So where do your first years go? The strange science of infantile amnesia, in plain words.
· psychology · famous experiments · myth busting
Universe 25: The Mouse Utopia Story Everyone Tells Wrong
The famous mouse paradise didn't collapse from overcrowding. Here's what really ran out, and what John Calhoun actually believed about humans.
· ancient humans · human evolution · sleep science
How Did Ancient Humans Survive Two Million Years of Night?
Fire, fear, and sleep that never fully switched off — the quiet tricks that carried our ancestors through two million years of darkness.
· psychology · memory · attention
The Doorway Effect: Why You Forget What You Came For
You march into the kitchen on a mission and the mission vanishes. Here's the real science of the doorway effect, and why your memory is fine.
· ancient humans · cognitive offloading · prehistory
Are You Really Smarter Than Someone From 20,000 Years Ago?
Same brain, different tools. What stone blades, ocean crossings, and 10,000-year-old memories say about the minds we came from.