How GPS Is Shrinking Your Brain (And Why Getting Lost Makes You Smarter)

Dumbify — Get Smarter by Thinking Dumber

Ever wondered if Google Maps is sneakily vacuum-sealing your sense of direction—and maybe your IQ—while you shuffle to Trader Joe’s? In this episode of Dumbify, David Carson yanks the GPS from your grip and drags you down the scenic, brain-bulking backroads of “strategic spacing out.” From moped-mounted London cabbie hopefuls sweating through The Knowledge to Darwin’s mud-splattered “Sand Walk” and Shigeru Miyamoto’s childhood cave crawl that birthed The Legend of Zelda, Carson shows how purposeful wandering doesn’t just feed curiosity—it fattens your hippocampus like a gray-matter gym rat.

Hit play and you’ll get the science (yes, actual MRIs), the silliness (goat-named Nigel makes a cameo), and two dead-simple challenges that turn your living room into a neuro-obstacle course. By the time the music fades, you’ll know why a 12-minute Mario ramble can reverse decades of brain shrinkage, how blindfold laps around your sofa beat overpriced nootropics, and why the longest route home might be the smartest decision you’ll make today. Lace up your sneakers—or don’t, Carson’s not picky—just mindlessly wander into the episode and let your neurons get gloriously lost.

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Dumbify celebrates ideas so weird, wrong, or wildly impractical… they just might be brilliant. Hosted by David Carson, a serial entrepreneur behind multiple hundred-million-dollar companies and the go-to secret weapon for companies looking to unlock new markets through unconventional thinking. Dumbify dives into the messy, counter-intuitive side of creativity — the “dumb” ideas that built empires, broke rules, and ended up changing everything.