ATU741 – Neurture with Brady Dowling

Hi, this is Brady Dowling and I am the founder of Neurture. And this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update. A weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 741 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on August 8th, 2025. On today’s show, we are excited to welcome Brady Dowling, founder of Neurture. He’s here to talk about the Neurture app as well as their podcast. We have a story about an AI museum assistant that’s able to help individuals with and without disabilities with accessing even more information at museums. We’re also joined by our friends from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning and a very special shout out to our friends at Easterseals in Massachusetts. Folks, as always, we thank you so much for taking time out of your day to give us a listen. Make sure to tell your friends and family so they can check us out as well. But now let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Folks, we cannot thank you enough for giving us a listen here at Assistive Technology Update. But did you know that this is not the only podcast that we have? You can also check out our sister show, Assistive Technology Frequently Ask Questions. This show comes out once a month and it features panelists, Belva Smith, Brian Norton, and myself as we try to answer the questions that are plaguing your mind about assistive technology. We gather up all the questions we get during the month from emails, phone calls, and many other means, and then we do our best to answer them. But I got to tell you folks, believe it or not, we do not know everything. So we rely on our listeners a lot to reach out to us and give us some of those answers or maybe just talk about their personal experiences and things that have happened to them.

So if you like Assistive Technology Update, you may very well love Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions. Again, it’s Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions where you can get your questions about assistive technology answered, or if you happen to have the answers to some of the questions asked on that show, please, please, please do reach out and let us know so that we can help the community with the answers that they so desperately seek. Much like Assistive Technology Update, you can find Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions wherever you prefer to get your podcast. And as always listeners, thank you for listening.

Listeners, as I said, our guest today is Brady Dowling, the founder of Neurture. Now, I actually found out about Neurture and about Brady from a sister organization. Jessie Salz, who is the senior assistive technology specialist and field supervisor for Easterseals of Massachusetts reached out after finding out about the Neurture App and suggested that maybe we have Brady on the show. I think I’ve told you many times listeners, that some of our best guests and some of our best interviews come from suggestions of our listeners. So we’re very excited and want to just make sure that we definitely give a shout-out to Jessie and the whole team over there at Easterseals Massachusetts. Again, just for giving us the idea and for keeping us in the loop.

Do you have someone that you’d like to hear on Assistive Technology Update, maybe a piece of technology you’d like to learn more about, maybe something that you use every day or something that you just want to dig a little deeper into? Well, you know what, we’d love to hear from you. We’d love to hear about it. You can always shoot us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. You can call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. You can also go to our website, which is eastersealstech.com. And from that website, you can not only find this podcast and our other great podcasts. You can also find our tech tip, YouTube videos, our blog posts, as well as descriptions of all of our different services. Another thing that’s really nice is you can check out our amazing staff along with their email addresses are all included on the site as well. So again, if you’ve got a question, a comment, or even better somebody that we should have on as a guest, do not hesitate to reach out. Again, drop us a line at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Call our listener line at (317) 721-7124 or check out our website at eastersealstech.com for even more information and ways to reach us. And again, just a giant shout out and thank you to Jessie Salz from Easterseals Massachusetts for thinking of us and getting us in contact with Brady.

Our first story today actually comes as a bit of an update. We have had Karthik on here before from Envision talking about just the really cool things that the app and their devices can do to help individuals who are visually impaired to access the world around them in all different kinds of ways. Last time we had them on, I talked a lot about their new AI assistant called … It’s either Ally or Ally. And if I say it wrong, I really do apologize, but it’s A-L-L-Y. What we’re talking about today is Ally working with museums in order to make it a little bit more inclusive for really everybody. So Envision, of course, helps individuals with visual impairments access the world them. But this partnership with museums is they’re trying to assist anyone. And basically what happens is you walk into the museum, you scan a QR code at the very beginning of the museum, so not at every single installation. And then you can just conversate with the AI assistant in order to get more information. So you walk up to a piece of art or an installation and you say, “Tell me more about this.” Maybe what medium was used. What was the artist’s thinking? What makes this special? Describe the materials or the painting. Or if it’s a sculpture or anything like that it can really give you a whole lot of information.

And when I say this can be accessible for anyone, of course this is helpful for someone with a visual impairment who can’t visually access the art, but it’s also made where it can easily stream straight to an individual’s hearing aid. So if they are hard of hearing, they can easily get the information that they might need. But also through this conversational guidance, it can really help anyone. And once everything’s enabled, you’re not really using your screen, you’re just using your voice to interact with it and get more information. So even visitors who are sighted can get a whole lot more information without maybe having to try to read a placard or get that information. They can even get a little deeper into the installations. So this isn’t available in all museums. It looks like they’re working on some partnerships. I’ll put a link over to their site where you can watch a couple of videos talking about everything and dig a little deeper into what we talked about here. But a very cool update and something that’s going to be really, really helpful for individuals with all kinds of abilities, really be able to dig in and access museums in the future. Next up on the show, listeners, please join me in welcoming back BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Tile. Find Lost Keys and Phone. Tile is both an app and a line of small Bluetooth tracker devices. You purchase any number of these devices from Tile and then register them to the app. Once registered, put a tile anywhere, and you can use the app to locate it as long as it is in Bluetooth range. The tiles are small enough that they can be put on just about anything, so you may want to use them to help you find things like your wallet, keys, coat, purse, white cane, laptop, or anything else you want to keep track of. For our blind reviewer, the app and associated hardware is fantastic. He uses it to easily and quickly locate important items such as his cane or wallet. Tile is a great product for anyone who wants to keep track of items.

For someone who is blind and or low vision, it is even more useful due to the ability to make items play a very distinctive sound for as long as it takes to locate the item. Best of all, the trackers themselves are not very expensive and replaceable batteries in most of them means you only have to buy new batteries every year or so, rather than a completely new product. Tile is currently available for both Android and iOS devices and is free to download. For more information on this app and others like it, visit bridgingapps.org.

Today we are excited to get to discuss the Neurture app, a subclinical app that utilizes tools we’ll discuss during the show today to assist individuals with addressing unwanted behaviors and fostering self-awareness all while promoting healthier habits. We’re very excited to welcome Brady Dowling to the show to tell us all about it. Brady, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much, Josh. Happy to be on.

Yeah. I am really excited to get into talking about Neurture and the Neurture app and everything, but before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Yeah, so I’m a software engineer by trade, and so I’ve been heavily involved in technology and making technology, making websites, apps, and really just been interested in technology since I was a little kid playing video games, getting into the internet in the late ’90s, getting exposed to social media for the first time when Facebook came out and when these things were first really getting started. And so anyway, I’ve always had this pull toward technology like I think a lot of people can relate to. But yeah, since then, since becoming a professional and going into the workforce, I’ve always worked on building software and I’ve always had this creative drive to make my own software and to solve a real problem.

I’m guessing that’s probably what led us to where we are today and why we have you on. So Brady, tell me what is Neurture?

Yeah. So Neurture is a mental health app, and the idea is that it provides research-based resources to help people break habits or overcome addictive behaviors. So what does that actually look like? For me, like I mentioned, I’ve always had this draw and this pull to technology, but I felt like there weren’t really good resources out there. A lot of the offerings that you might see if you were to search … I don’t know, break habits or quit doom scrolling or something like that, you might see a sober counter or maybe you’d see a motivational quotes app. And beyond that, there’s not much in the way of real therapeutic tools that are available. And so that’s what Neurture tries to provide is taking more of a research-based approach using these therapeutic modalities that are proven to benefit people and address real needs and concerns. And also to see people like myself and really everyone at this point who have these habits and behaviors that they want to break or that they just want to moderate in some way.

Many people are looking at mental health through anxiety or other things like that. A lot of mental health apps are used to address those things. But I think there are a lot of people that are not being seen with trying to break habits or overcome addictive behaviors or even just unwanted behaviors, even if it’s just anger or how people are dealing with certain emotions. And another one of the goals of Neurture is to target these people and see these people and help you to achieve goals in that way.

That’s awesome. And you mentioned that there’s some different therapeutic modalities available. Can you give us an example of what some of those are?

Yeah. Exactly. So a few of the big ones are going to be meditation, journaling, affirmations. And I’m sure people have heard of these things so that they aren’t necessarily novel, but channeling these to the addictive behavior space or the unwanted habit space, that’s something that’s important and it’s important to put that spin on it so that it can be applied properly. And again, so people can feel seen. And when someone goes into maybe a more generic meditation app that’s just for stress or just mindfulness in general, it doesn’t really have that same effect as it does when you’re working with an app that actually is helping you to break some habit or overcome some behavior. So that’s where you’re getting is a few tools that you probably have heard of, but then it’s also going to help you build self-compassion, which is proven to help people overcome any unwanted behaviors. And then it’s also going to sprinkle in different therapies that some people may have heard of cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and then mindfulness space relapse prevention.

So it combines a lot of different tools. Like you said, some of these may be out there, but especially if you’re really trying to change behaviors, you’re probably not going to go to all these different ones that aren’t really tailored and are … I don’t want to say off the shelf, but not maybe tailored towards your needs as much. But this really puts them all together and tailors them to the individual.

Yeah. Exactly. So you’ll see these principles being mentioned or taught throughout, whether it’s in a meditation or whether it’s in just the copy on a certain screen. And so that’s how you’ll get a lot of extra education, what’s called psycho education. And so you’ll become more aware of these certain things just in a whole variety of different ways as you are interacting with the app.

Brady we talk about the unwanted behaviors or maybe breaking some cycles, promoting healthier habits. Can you elaborate just on what all exactly Neurture can assist with. Can it help with … If we talk about unwanted behaviors, you mentioned anger and things like that. But could it also assist with, let’s say, I don’t know if I wanted to quit smoking or things like that? Are there tools in there that can assist me with those kinds of needs as well and everything in between?

Yeah. Absolutely. So when people onboard into the app one of the first steps that you would do is selecting the behaviors that you want to focus on, and you can select up to three, but it could be smoking or vaping, it could be drinking alcohol, it could be viewing pornography, snacking or overeating. So it’s really pretty broad in that aspect. You can basically pick your own adventure and focus in on what you want to pick in that regard and basically use that as your starting point and then go from there.

That’s really cool. I can pretty much answer this on my own, but Brady, why is this important?

Yeah. It’s important. I alluded to this before, but I think mental health has been destigmatized quite a bit in the last 10 plus years. And I think a lot of that has been around stress, anxiety, depression, and so we see a lot of stories about people overcoming these things or just being comfortable with them, being comfortable with talking about them. But I think there’s still a ways to go in the world of addiction. And I think that having some tool that’s available and that is accessible and where people can confront an addictive behavior without feeling judged or stigmatized, I think that’s pretty crucial for someone’s mindset.

Most definitely. Like you said, you don’t have to really confess it to another person or feel that stigma or judgment. If you’re reaching out even to an app, it means you’d like to make that change. So any tool that can help you along that way is always a great thing. Brady, when you were talking just about your past and everything and love and technology and want to change things, I guess, where did the idea for Neurture come from? Why did you settle on building an app and working on a program to really help with addiction and changing behaviors?

Yeah. I think it’s a few different factors that came together at the same time. I think for me, I’ve always just thought about, okay, am I using technology too much? Am I watching too much YouTube? Am I playing too many video games? As a kid, I remember Waking up in the morning before school, before middle school, and there was a new version of NBA Street out. I woke up and started playing it at Seven A.M. in the morning and got in a half hour to an hour before I went to school. And to my dad and to me internally, that felt pretty ridiculous and pretty silly, but also like, no, I got to get at it. And I also remember before going off to college, another game came out a week before I was supposed to leave, and so I really was cramming that week to start it and finish it in that week. And so I have these memories of really digging in and you could say binging. Binging on certain bits of technology, certain games or whatever it is, or just even not being able to put my phone down when I know, I feel inside, I actually want to go outside. I actually want to talk to friends, whatever it is. But I can’t get out of that zone and for some reason I just keep scrolling or I keep refreshing or whatever it is.

And so that was the one angle is I really feel like I have this need personally. And then for a while I felt like I want to solve some problem for people. I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own thing. So that was in the back of my mind for quite some time, but I wanted to really develop the skills that I needed to do that and then also find something that I felt passionate about and that I felt like was going to be helpful for other people. And then after being in the tech field for a while, having worked at Amazon, having worked at a mental health company for a few years and starting to understand these different spaces and what the needs were and how certain dynamics were at play, then I felt like, okay, I think this is really a good idea. It popped in my head and couldn’t get rid of it, and then just developed since then and chewed on it for a while. And then I left the mental health company that I was with and really just jumped right into it.

Nice. Nice. That’s awesome. In just doing a little bit of research for this, Brady, I found out that you also have a podcast, is that correct?

Yeah. Exactly. So it’s called The Adaptive Mind, and it’s basically in the same arena. So really interviewing clinicians, interviewing entrepreneurs, any expert in the mental health or behavioral change field. A lot of the episodes have been talking about different tools or approaches for coping strategies or how to just enact more healthy behaviors that can help people break habits.

Oh, that’s awesome. You probably have quite a few of these, but hopefully some folks have reached out to you. Could you tell us a story about someone’s experience using Neurture?

Yeah. So I think one that pops into mind is I have a friend who is focusing on overcoming pornography usage, so completely ceasing viewing pornography. And he was talking about how tracking his urges that he feels really helps him look at things from a more balanced perspective. And going back to what I was talking about before with sober counters, that’s something that you don’t see from a lot of apps. A lot of apps have this counting mentality and you have this all or nothing, and it’s like either I’m sober or I’m not, and that doesn’t fit even with a lot of people’s behaviors or with their goals. If you’re looking at doom scrolling or social media, you’re trying to reduce or moderate something, then the term sobriety doesn’t even fit. But anyway, with this friend in particular, for him being able to track urges and take a more almost scientific and non-judgmental approach at it has just been very helpful for changing his mindset. And so that’s another one of the tools that within Neurture is being able to track urges and take this different approach, different mindset, not necessarily looking at it as a relapse or a lapse or whatever it is, but taking it into account that way.

No. I like that. And talking about an urge tracker, and I don’t know if that’s what it’s called, and maybe that’s not the right thing, but just to describe it, I could how that could help to maybe show that, like you said, to maybe, I don’t know, give it a name, take yourself away from it a little bit. But also I got to feel like there’s probably a little bit of … I don’t even know the right … A little bit of pride when you’re like, “Okay. Here’s my urges for this week, but I didn’t act on them.” I didn’t go to whatever I was doing, whatever I’m trying to change. So I feel like over time, that’s got to help out at least some folks a little bit being able to see that.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think you reference it, but also just the ability to put distance in between yourself and your own person and that urge and that situation and whatever it is. And so being able to look at that situation almost analytically, but really just saying it like I’m feeling an urge. Saying that phrase adds that distance and really adds a lot of power to a person.

Oh man, I bet that it does. Brady, if our listeners want to find out more about the Neurture app or if they want to find the podcast, what’s good ways for them to do that?

So it’s in both the Apple iPhone App Store, and it’s in the Play Store as well. So for Android. So that’s N-E-U-R-T-U-R-E. And then for the podcast, for The Adaptive Mind, you can find that at theadaptivemind.com and it’s also on all major podcast platforms. For the app I’ll make sure that we include a promo code that you can get one free month on Neurture, and I’ll send that over to you and people can use that.

Excellent. We’ll put all those links and include that promo code down in the show notes so that folks can check it out. Well, Brady, thank you so much for coming to the show, for telling us about the Neurture app. It doesn’t feel like it should be such a new idea. I feel like there should be something out there, but I am so glad that you did put this out there because like you said, there’s so many folks who do have habits addictions or things they’d probably like to change, but just need that little bit of help, need that assistance to be able to do it and to be able to do it on their own. So thank you so much for coming on and telling us about it and for making such a great app to be able to help so many folks.

Yeah. Of course. I’m glad we can have this conversation, Josh.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter at In Data Project. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com.

A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project Easterseals Crossroads are supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.