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.

What if the secret to unlocking your smartest ideas… was to think dumber?

In this kick-off episode of Dumbify, host David Carson takes you behind the curtain of his wildly successful career building multimillion-dollar companies and advising brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, and IKEA—not by following the rules, but by breaking them in the smartest dumb ways possible.

Carson makes the case that the world’s most powerful ideas didn’t start in boardrooms or brainstorming decks. They started as weird gut instincts—strange, dumb thoughts that almost no one had the courage to say out loud. Airbnb? Dumb. The smiley face? Dumb. Everything Bagel seasoning? Deliciously dumb. But they worked. And in this episode, you’ll find out why.

Through stories, insights, and a healthy dose of irreverence, Carson introduces “The Dumbify Loop,” a repeatable process for tapping into the part of your brain that’s been trained to shut up—the part that questions norms, says the obvious, and follows the ridiculous… all the way to breakthrough.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cringe. You’ll question everything you learned in school.

This is more than a podcast—it’s a rebellion against performative intelligence and a permission slip to try the idea that sounds just dumb enough to work.

Whether you’re building a business, teaching a class, or trying to solve a problem everyone else has given up on, this episode gives you the tools (and the guts) to finally say the thing you’ve been keeping quiet.

Get smarter by thinking dumber. Hit play.

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.

This Episode Is So Boring… You’ll Love It

In this episode of Dumbify, David Carson makes a passionate case for doing… absolutely nothing. No hustle, no hacks—just raw, unfiltered boredom. The kind that makes you narrate cereal boxes in a British accent or build a trebuchet out of takeout chopsticks. The kind that makes your brain go, “Shhh… I’m building something.”

With a brain scan’s worth of science, a fruit basket for Mexico, and a cast of bored geniuses, David invites you into the underrated brilliance of zoning out. You’ll meet the Default Mode Network—your brain’s backstage jazz band—and learn why it only comes alive when the spotlight’s off. You’ll discover how woolgathering (yes, that’s your Dumb Word of the Day) can spark revolutions in underwear design, wizard fiction, and hip-hop musicals.

From ancient bathtubs to delayed trains to Atlanta traffic jams, this episode makes one bold claim: your next big idea is probably hiding behind your boredom.

So put down the productivity apps. Stare at a wall. Let your brain throw a rave without adult supervision. Because sometimes doing nothing is how you find everything.

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.