In this episode of Dumbify, David Carson explores the magnificently dumb—and disturbingly genius—world of Fake My Run, a website that generates completely fake, wildly convincing workout data. But this isn’t just a prank. It’s a philosophical takedown of fitness culture itself.

Created by 26-year-old Dutch developer Arthur Buffard, Fake My Run lets you “exercise” from the comfort of your couch while racking up imaginary marathons through Antarctica. It’s funny… until you realize it’s also true. Because in a world where people pay strangers (Strava mules!) to run on their behalf for social clout, what even counts as real anymore?

Arthur didn’t build an app—he performed a reductio ad absurdum, pushing fitness culture to its most ridiculous extreme and holding up a mirror. The reflection? A species more obsessed with posting their run than running it. David follows this thread to its wild conclusion—and even runs a weeklong social experiment of his own.

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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.

Host David Carson dives into the beautifully bizarre brain of Richard Feynman—Nobel laureate, safecracker, bongo enthusiast, and the poster child for thinking dumb on purpose. From poking government safes with a stick to interrogating the color of the sky, Feynman never confused sounding smart with being curious.

You’ll hear how a cafeteria prank led to a Nobel-winning quantum theory, how Feynman prank-unlocked top-secret safes at Los Alamos, and why he once forced a class of elite students into a courtyard to stare at the sky until someone could actually explain why it was blue.

This isn’t physics. It’s philosophy in flip-flops.

Whether you love science or haven’t passed math since 10th grade, this episode will leave you laughing, wondering, and maybe even wobbling like that plate.

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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.

What do alien abduction insurance, canned Canadian air, and paying $5 for absolutely nothing have in common?

They’re all best-selling business ideas.

In this gloriously dumb—and secretly brilliant—episode of Dumbify, host David Carson dives headfirst into the underground economy of “profitable emptiness”: a world where useless products, theoretical services, and absurd experiences are packaged so well, people happily throw money at them.

Meet Mike St. Lawrence, who’s sold over 30,000 alien abduction policies since 1987—complete with psychiatric care and sarcasm coverage. Then there’s the Canadian duo behind Vitality Air, who started bottling fresh mountain air as a joke… until it became a hot commodity in Beijing. And don’t forget Cards Against Humanity, who made $71,000 in a single day by selling nothing. Literally. Nothing.

But this isn’t just about gag gifts. It’s about human psychology. It’s about narrative surplus—the idea that in a hyper-optimized world, the real currency isn’t utility… it’s story. You’re not buying protection from aliens. You’re buying the right to be the most interesting person at a party.

By the end, you’ll question everything you thought you knew about value, worthlessness, and why we buy anything at all.

Sign up for the Dumbify newsletter: https://www.david-carson.com/

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.