The Longest Shortest Time

Episode #160: Imaginary Friends & Kids

By the age of 7, a whopping 65 percent of children report that they’ve had an imaginary companion. You guys wrote in to tell us all about your friends, including Boy Sir, Nuno, Wire, Darknesses, Habzebees, Zoonie, Nobody, Singadig, Carol, Butcher, Dugger, Bubba, Owan, Mr. Shoe, Jenny Poopoo, Lola, annnddd Rock Man!

The deliciously strange list of names got us thinking—where do these friends come from? What makes a kid more likely to have one? Why are their names cooler than all other names?

Here’s Sammy shortly after sending his imaginary cousins Helen and Colin away on his special plane.

Ryer doesn’t have imaginary friends. He has imaginary hired help. He uses a toy cell phone to give them jobs around his family’s farm.

Josh in Seattle

Shortly after these headshots were taken, Josh’s imaginary companion Pepto became evil.

Tune in for the fun, weird, dark details on these kids’ imaginary friends… and many more. We even got a psychology professor to tell us what it all means!

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