Superpowers

I like to follow the podcast This American Life. Each week they pick a theme, and then get stories that somehow fit that theme from ordinary people like you and me. They're usually quite fascinating. An episode  from a while ago was called "Superpowers," and one segment of the show was devoted to the author John Hodgeman. 

Hodgeman talked about how he has always been interested in the question of "Flight Vs. Invisibility," and every person he meets, he asks them which one they would prefer. I liked his idea, so I decided to copy it and write my newspaper article this week on what I found out.

I ended up interviewing 30 people in all -- 17 women and 13 men (which I thought was fitting, because UNCG's student body has way more females than males). Some of the people I knew, but many of them were complete strangers. Twenty people chose flying, and only ten chose invisibility. 

My results were the same as Hodgeman's, in that all but 2 guys chose flying. However, Hodgeman said that most of the women he interviewed chose invisibility, and my results were evenly divided. It was particularly interesting to me how fast people decided which superpower they wanted--it was almost immediate--like they'd already given the question some serious thought.

When I asked each person why they chose flight, most of the answers were along the lines of: "I would only like invisibility for the the theft potential" or "Because I'm not a creeper." For those who wanted invisibility, some of the answers were: "So I could rob a bank" and "So I could hear what people say and find out what they're really like." 

Flight seemed to be the choice for those who wanted to be in the public eye, and invisibility was for people who prefered to be hidden. Which would you choose?

"Collapsing at Your Doorstep" by Air France