Recommended by
Recommended by
“This incredibly perceptive book shows how fatherhood can become a gateway to an entirely new way of living. The New Fatherhood will help men and the people they love rethink success, masculinity, and the stories we inherit.”
#1 New York Times bestselling author
“This is a manifesto for a new era of parenting—one defined by presence, vulnerability, and reimagined masculinity. Reading it will make you feel seen.”
Author of The Good Enough Job
A new operating system for the most important job you'll ever have.
From the creator of Substack's #1 fatherhood newsletter, read by 25,000+ dads across the world. A book that rewrites the rules of fatherhood, enabling dads to thrive, not survive, with deeply personal stories, transformative perspectives, and techniques you can apply in even the most turbulent moments.
“This incredibly perceptive book shows how fatherhood can become a gateway to an entirely new way of living. The New Fatherhood will help men and the people they love rethink success, masculinity, and the stories we inherit.”
#1 New York Times bestselling author
“This is a manifesto for a new era of parenting—one defined by presence, vulnerability, and reimagined masculinity. Reading it will make you feel seen.”
Author of The Good Enough Job
Buy the book from your favorite bookseller, then email your proof of purchase to kevin@newfatherhood.email with the subject “BONUS TIME” to receive the following bonuses:
Three chapters that didn't make the final cut. Not because they weren't good enough, but because the book had to end somewhere. Includes an entirely new introduction written specifically for this collection. Consider it the director's cut.
A curated PDF companion to the book's appendix: kids' TV shows that won't make you want to gouge your eyes out, the books you'll miss reading to your kids when they grow up, suggestions for family movie night, and essays on films like Another Round, Perfect Days, and Train Dreams that will shift your perspective on fatherhood.
The step-by-step guide that helps new and expectant dads prepare for fatherhood. Covering everything from the hospital bag to the fourth trimester. Every pre-order includes a unique discount code.
An invite to a one-off live conversation with me and Simone Stolzoff (author of The Good Enough Job) on what it actually looks like to write a book around bedtime, school runs, and everything else.
A downloadable discussion guide with questions for each chapter, conversation starters, and prompts designed to get dads actually talking—not just nodding along.
A limited-edition heart-shaped enamel badge—the perfect way to let all the other dads on the school run know you're a dad in the know. The badge is free; you just cover postage.
Why Protect, Provide, Preside, the three rules that defined fatherhood for generations, are broken, and what replaces them
How to move from Scarcity Fatherhood (endure, push through, ration your emotions) to Abundant Fatherhood (grow, show up, let yourself feel)
The neuroscience of what happens to your brain when you become a dad, and why the changes are a feature, not a bug
Why you are not your job, and how to build an identity that includes fatherhood without being consumed by work
The five stages of breaking the cycle — a framework for recognising and rewriting the patterns you inherited from your own father
Why men's health is a fatherhood issue, and how becoming a dad can be the backdoor to finally taking care of yourself
What nobody tells you about paternal mental health, and why hospitals screen mothers for depression while fathers sit in waiting rooms
Why we're the first generation doing this without a map, and why that's both terrifying and liberating
How fatherhood opens the empathy valve, unlocking a capacity for connection that the old model of masculinity kept sealed shut
Why the goal isn't to be a perfect dad — it's to show up, do the repair, and model for your kids that growth is possible
“I love your newsletter. It seems like you're the first person to figure out that dads have feelings too.”
“Always feels like you're writing about something I perceive to be a solitary darkness, and you bring the light at just the right moment.”
“I've been going through a difficult time with my kids recently and reading everyone's thoughts, experiences and challenges about fatherhood has been a real comfort. Encouraging to know that we're not in this alone.”
“My guy group chat is usually just forwards from other groups, memes, GIFs. But since I forwarded your newsletter we've been talking about how we honestly feel. It's been really refreshing.”
“Thank you for your honesty. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only person going through it, every day, somehow pulling it all together between being a dad and being a man.”
“I always finish your newsletters more inspired and informed than when I started. My wife is already annoyed at me for reading out sections aloud to her as she tries to work!”
“Mandatory reading for anyone trying to be a good dad. Nothing else like it.”
“I never knew I needed a community of dads until I found The New Fatherhood. It's made me feel that I'm not alone in the everyday titanic struggle of raising little Homo sapiens.”
Fatherhood will change you. That much is certain. But whilst it can never be under your control, it can be under your influence.
The old rules of fatherhood are no longer fit for purpose. It used to be simple: you had to protect, provide for, and preside over your family. But the world has changed, seeing today's dads question the role they play in society, at work, and in their homes, as they feel the once-solid foundation of fatherhood crumble beneath their feet.
This redefinition of a role previously set in stone for generations has sent dads looking for answers. Thousands have found them in their inboxes, via The New Fatherhood, the #1 fatherhood newsletter on Substack. For five years, Kevin Maguire has interviewed some of the world's best thinkers, studied the output of our most creative minds, and dove deep into the archives of peer-reviewed parenting. This book transforms those sources into an updated operating system for modern dads: delivered through deeply personal stories, transformative perspectives on success and sense of purpose, compact frameworks, habits that stick, and techniques you can apply in even the most turbulent moments.
Kevin Maguire is dad-in-chief at The New Fatherhood. He's appeared on podcasts with Dr Becky Kennedy, Daniel Pink, Oliver Burkeman and Brad Stulberg and his writing has been featured in Esquire Magazine and Emily Oster's ParentData.
He works as an executive coach with CEOs, CMOs and VPs of Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Netflix and Google as they navigate the intersections of career and family. He lives in Barcelona with his wife and two children.
Though my name is on the cover, I didn't write this book on my own. It had been shepherded into existence by so many of you: the dads who jumped into open comment threads in the early days of the newsletter, the ongoing conversations we have in the Dadscord every day, all the ways that the dads in the orbit of this newsletter continue to show up for each other. Every chapter ends with a “let's hear it from the dads” section, in which I hand the megaphone over to some of the most powerful things I've heard from the 25,000+ dads who have been reading the weekly newsletter over the last five years.
10% of all royalties will go towards The New Fatherhood Therapy Fund, a direct action fund that provides access to therapy for dads struggling with their mental health, regardless of where they are, what healthcare plan they're on, or how much money they have.