What's Your Superpower?

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Here's a little 10-minute tag for the end of the show today. The question is, what is your superpower, and how do you use it? What is your superpower, and how do you use it? 212-433-WNYC. Call or text right now, 212-433-9692. Maybe you're familiar with this question. It comes up as an icebreaker at parties or sometimes increasingly during job interviews. We hear it more these days in political and cultural analysis, too, referring to things different politicians, musicians, or whoever are really good at. Maybe by now you've thought about this regarding yourself.

Maybe you're even one of those college-educated bobos or college-educated working-class members who've been coached that in your next job interview, they may ask you, "What is your superpower?" and you should be ready with an answer. What is your superpower, and how do you use it? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Obviously, it means what are you especially good at. It can be interpersonal skills for some people. "Oh, my superpower is my ability to listen." "My superpower is that I always show up on time." "My superpower is I'm great at remembering faces," or from the even more day-to-day, "Maybe my superpower is spatial awareness," or "My superpower is I'm really good at parallel parking."

That's definitely not my superpower. You always seem to know where everything is around your house. That's your superpower, your remote control, your keys, and your spouse's keys. Maybe your superpower is remaining calm in any situation. Maybe you are the family's tech expert, and you can fix anyone's Wi-Fi or whatever. What is your superpower, and how do you use it? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We'll take your calls and texts on your superpowers right after this.

[MUSIC - Marden Hill: Hijack]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. What is your superpower, and how do you use it? Tim in Brooklyn. Hi, Tim.

Tim: Good morning, Brian. Generally, I can by taste alone tell the alcohol content of a pilsner or lager within two-tenths of 1%, just tasting it. I've been tested on it before because I've said I can do it. People go, "No, you can't. Here, try this. What is this?" I'm usually there. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Do you use it to bust the alcohol producers on if they're lying about it on their bottles?

Tim: No, I don't have a higher purpose for it. It's just a bar trick. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: All right. Thank you very much. Joe in Maplewood, what's your superpower? Hi, Joe.

Joe: I don't let people get under my skin. I was in a conflict one time where a guy was causing trouble with guests at a party. I told him he was bothering people, and he was very condescending. He said to me something like, "I hope I didn't offend you." I said, "You couldn't possibly offend me." Then he took that as a challenge, and he's like, "Surely I can offend you in some way." I said to him, "No, first I'd have to care about you." That's my superpower, like when people are really trying to get under my skin-

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much.

Joe: -I don't let it happen.

Brian Lehrer: Thick skin. You shrug it off. Nadia in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Nadia. What's your superpower?

Nadia: Hi, Brian. My superpower is whenever I drop something, I can always find it right away, no matter how small, like an earring back, right away. I can find it. It's amazing.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Bruce in Tuckahoe. Hi, Bruce. What's your superpower?

Bruce: When I cook, and there's leftovers in the pot, I have this uncanny ability to find a Tupperware or a container that fits the amount in the leftover pot perfectly. It's not going to go over. It's not going to go under. It just nails it every time.

Brian Lehrer: Uncanny is a good word for that one. Bruce, thank you very much for your call. Some texts, a listener writes, "My superpower is that I can turn off my sense of smell, literally. I always end up with trash duties or unclogging the toilet." Here's one that's contrarian. A listener writes, "Mine is being human with no superpower." Helen in Brewster, you're on WNYC. Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi. I love your show.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Helen: This is probably the first time I'm calling. As I tell everybody, I can't play a piano. I can't play a guitar. I can't sing. I can't dance, but I go to everybody else's performances, and I clap.

Brian Lehrer: Your superpower is being a great audience member.

Helen: Audience. Yes. I figured they can't do anything without an audience.

Brian Lehrer: Helen, thank you very much. Love that one. Tom in Morris County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tom.

Tom: Hello, Brian. My superpower is a form--

Brian Lehrer: What's your superpower? Go ahead. Sorry.

Tom: It's a form of resilience. 25 years ago, I was in an accident which damaged my spinal cord. I am not in a wheelchair. I have been blessed by a partial recovery. I figured, "Why waste it?" Let me find something I can do with what I have. I met a man with vision. He was the chief of our local volunteer first aid squad. He allowed me a chance to be of service. I've been on the volunteer first aid squad for three years now despite my disability. Not giving up is my superpower.

Brian Lehrer: That's a wonderful one, Tom. Thank you very much. A listener writes, "My superpower--" much more trivial than Tom's. "My superpower is waking up between 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM without an alarm, no matter how late I go to sleep." I would call that insomnia or a detriment, but this person calls it a superpower. Let's see. "It's amazing how much you can accomplish before everyone else is up when the texts and calls start coming." Amazing that you don't just crash out at one o'clock in the afternoon, but good. That's your superpower. Here's one. "I discovered years ago that I have a unique gift for finding lost things." Oh, this is the second one like this.

We had a caller like that. "Keys, jewelry, paperwork, anything that's missing, I can literally feel where things are, even if they're hiding in unexpected places." I'm going to have to have you come over to my place and help me with some things. Another one. "My superpower as an aeronautical engineer is that I can see every part assembly installation in my head and how they all interact with one another. Everything flashes in my mind in drawings and 3D objects." Let's see. Can we get one or two more in here on the phone? How about Matt in the Bronx, because I have no idea what this means from the note I have on my screen. Hi, Matt. What's your superpower?

Matt: I have two superpowers. They're very different. One is swimming with dolphins in the wild in Santa Monica Bay, where I spend some of my time. The other is as a general counsel, in-house lawyer, instead of being the department of "no," being the department of "yes, we will find a way to get it done."

Brian Lehrer: The find-a-way-to-get-it-done superpower inside Matt in the Bronx, and with that, we end it. Thank you very much for all your superpower calls. That was fun. Maybe we'll do that again sometime. The Brian Lehrer Show is produced by Lisa Allison, Mary Croke, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum, with our interns Arlo Bivins and Jack Walker. Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Stay tuned for Alison, won't you?

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