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All posts by Dr. Sax

The Megyn Kelly Show


Dr. Sax was on The Megyn Kelly Show for an extended discussion of issues facing girls, boys, and their parents, on January 18 2023. You can watch the entire interview (90 minutes!) or choose short...
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The Institute for Family Studies


Since 2018, Dr. Sax has been a regular contributor to the Institute for Family Studies, publishing essays on a wide variety of topics including the growing gender gap in academic achievement; the...
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The Return of the God Hypothesis


Friedrich Nietzsche was among the first philosophers to wrestle seriously with the implications of Charles Darwin’s theories. In Daybreak (1881), Nietzsche considered the metaphysical...
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But Mom, video games are my JOB! (New York Times)


Kyle Giersdorf earned $3 million when he won the Fortnite World Cup. He was 16 years old. Suppose it’s after midnight and your son is playing video games. You tell him to turn off the game and...
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Who was Hitler’s grandfather? Why should you care?


Eric Metaxas, author of bestselling biographies of Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, interviews Dr. Sax about Dr. Sax’s scholarly paper “Aus den Gemeinden von Burgenland“, in...
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Aus den Gemeinden von Burgenland


Hans Frank was Adolf Hitler’s personal attorney. In Frank’s memoir, published seven years after his execution in 1946 at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Frank claimed to have...
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The Collapse of Parenting (Fox Business)


Stuart Varney interviews Dr. Sax about “The Collapse of Parenting”. This interview is fun! Click here to watch this video.
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Why Stinky Socks Bother Women More Than Men (New York Times)


A couple, returning from vacation, turns on the air-conditioning. The wife is overwhelmed by a terrible stench coming from the ductwork and is convinced that an animal must have died in the house....
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“I Just Want Her to be Happy” (First Things)


The Science Talent Search is the leading science competition for American high school students. It’s often referred to as “The Junior Nobel Prize.” According to a recent study, 83 percent of...
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Parenting in the Age of Awfulness (Wall Street Journal)


Kyle was absorbed in a videogame on his cellphone, so I asked his mom, “How long has Kyle had a stomach ache?” Mom said, “I’m thinking it’s been about two days.” Then Kyle replied,...
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Biopolar diagnosis in USA and Germany


Compared with a teenager in Germany, a teenager in the United States is about how likely to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder? About forty times as likely See Martin Holtmann and colleagues,...
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AP Computer Science exam rates among girls


In 1987, 34% of students who took the AP Computer Science exam were girls. What proportion of students who took the AP Computer Science exam in 2021 were girls? 25% Or to be precise, 25.4%. In 2016,...
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Physical Fitness in American Youth


What proportion of American kids 12 to 15 years of age meet minimum standards for physical fitness, based on their ability to walk and run? 42% Over the past decade, rates of obesity have been pretty...
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Obesity rates among American Children


In 1972, 5% of American children and adolescents were obese. In 2020, what proportion of American children and adolescents were obese? 19.7% For the 1972 data, see Cheryl Fryar and colleagues,...
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ADHD Diagnosis in the UK and USA


Compared with a teenager in the United Kingdom, a teenager in the United States is about how likely to be diagnosed with ADHD? About 14 times as likely The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has...
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Female-to-Male ratio taking Spanish Literature AP exam


In 2021, what was the approximate female-to-male ratio among students who took the AP exam in Spanish Literature? 20 girls for every 10 boys To be precise: 14,662 girls took the AP exam in Spanish...
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Prescription Antipsychotic Medications


Compared with children in Italy, children in the United States are about how likely to be on prescription antipsychotic medications such as Risperdal and Seroquel? About 90 times as likely To be...
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Advice to parents for raising strong boys (Today Show)


Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb interview Dr. Sax and Dr. Meg Meeker on The TODAY Show. This video is no longer available. A transcript is available here. 
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Blame Parents, Not Kids, for Sexting (Wall Street Journal)


If mom and dad installed monitoring software on their middle-schoolers’ phones, it would make a big difference. (Read article on The Wall Street Journal website) Earlier this year I visited a...
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Boys Adrift (Fox Business News)


Grow Up: Parenting Wars with John Stossel
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‘Unspecified Mental Disorder’? That’s Crazy (Wall Street Journal)


Psychiatry’s diagnostic bible has broadened the definition of mental illness to absurdity. (Read article on The Wall Street Journal website) The American Psychiatric Association released a...
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A.D.H.D. Drugs Have Long-Term Risks


(Read this article on The New York Times website) A teenager complains of difficulty concentrating. The doctor is consulted. The teenager does not meet formal criteria for A.D.H.D., but the doctor...
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ADHD Misdiagnosed? (CNN)


This video is no longer available. A transcript is online here. (Scroll down or search for “Sax”.) 1 million kids misdiagnosed with ADHD?
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Girls on the Edge (CNN)


Teen girls coping with drugs, alcohol, sexting (CNN) – If you have teenagers, the list of things to worry about seems to grow longer every day. It can be even more stressful if you have a teenage...
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Polyethylene Terephthalate May Yield Endocrine Disruptors


Abstract: Background: Recent reports suggest that endocrine disruptors may leach into the contents of bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET is the main ingredient in most clear...
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Sex Differences in Hearing


Implications for best practice in the classroom   Abstract: “Hearing” is not a unitary phenomenon, but a complex sensory experience. Many sex differences have been identified in the...
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Boys Adrift (Today Show)


This video of Matt Lauer interviewing Dr. Sax on the TODAY Show is no longer available. It appears that NBC has taken down most videos of Matt Lauer’s interviews.
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Child psychiatry is sick with hidden conflicts of interest


(Read article on the NY Daily News website) When I first began writing prescriptions for children 22 years ago, it was unusual for a child to be taking powerful psychiatric drugs. Today it’s...
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‘Twilight’ Sinks Its Teeth Into Feminism (Washington Post)


(Read this article on The Washington Post website) When the final book in the “The Twilight Saga” series went on sale this month, 18 area Barnes & Noble stores were among the shops...
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Boy Adrift (NPR)


Family physician, research psychologist, and author Dr. Leonard Sax explains why many of today’s young men and boys are unmotivated and uninterested in school and in life. He found five factors...
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What’s Happening to Boys? (Washington Post)


(Read this article on The Washington Post website) The romantic comedy “Failure to Launch,” which opened as the No. 1 movie in the nation this month, has substantially exceeded pre-launch...
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Why Gender Matters (Today Show)


Psychologist and family physician Dr. Leonard Sax, the author of Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences, talks with the TODAY...
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Too Few Women — Figure It Out (Los Angeles Times)


If their numbers in math and science don’t add up, blame schools, not brainpower. (Read this article on the LA Times website) True story: A distinguished Harvard professor suggests that women...
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Teens Will Speed. Let’s Watch Them Do It (Washington Post)


(Read this article on the Washington Post website) I met Danny Sivert seven years ago. I was with him in June 2002 after his wife, Bette, was killed in a traffic accident, leaving him to raise their...
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Who First Suggests the Diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?


ABSTRACT   PURPOSE We wanted to survey physicians in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area regarding the frequency with which physicians, teachers, parents, and others first suggest the...
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What was the cause of Nietzsche’s dementia?


Summary: Many scholars have argued that Nietzsche’s dementia was caused by syphilis. A careful review of the evidence suggests that this consensus is probably incorrect. The syphilis hypothesis...
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How common is intersex?


A response to Anne Fausto-Sterling Sometimes a child is born with genitalia which cannot be classified as female or male. A genetically female child (i.e., with XX chromosomes) may be born with...
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A Good Jew and a Good German


This article was originally published in The B’nai B’rith International Jewish Monthly in September 2000. You can read a PDF of the original article at this link for the complete article....
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Behavioral Neuroscience 1991


Only the function relating the required pulse frequency to the interburst interval discriminates between the priming effect and the rewarding effect: Separating 2 short bursts of pulses has no effect...
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Behavioral Neuroscience


We investigated temporal summation of the rewarding effects of medial forebrain stimulation in 4 male Sprague-Dawley rats by varying the interval separating the 2 short bursts of stimulation given as...
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