Improve your sense of direction

Life Kit

NPR

Kids & Family, Self-improvement, Business, Health & Fitness, Education

4.5 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you feel like you always need to use GPS to get around? Never quite sure if it's a left or a right turn — even though you just looked at a map? It can be anxiety-inducing to get around when you don't have a great sense of direction. This episode, experts explain how to gain more confidence while navigating. This episode originally aired May 6, 2024.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life.
0:07.8	Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket.
0:12.7	Science is approachable because it's already part of your life.
0:17.2	Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from NPR.
0:24.7	Music Come explore these connections on the shortwave podcast from NPR. You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
0:30.0	Hey, everybody, it's Mariel.
0:32.3	I have long felt that I have a terrible sense of direction.
0:35.8	Like when I'm in the parking lot and the GPS says,
0:38.2	go northwest on Route 10 or whatever,
0:40.9	I'm like, why would you think I know which way is northwest?
0:44.5	What am I, a ship's captain?
0:46.1	A Boy Scout earning his orienteering badge?
0:48.9	So I take a guess, and it's usually the wrong one.
0:52.3	But it doesn't have to be this way,
0:54.0	because it turns out your sense of direction is something you can work on.
0:58.7	NPR's Andrew Limbong looked into this for us,
1:01.1	and he has lots of tips for you, and for me,
1:04.2	because I'm tired of wasting gas.
1:12.3	Hey, what's up, everyone?
1:14.7	The other day, I had to run an errand.
1:19.4	It wasn't crazy far from where I live in Baltimore.
1:22.2	It was just in a part of town I don't go to all that often.
	...

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