NPR

Amid layoffs and bad economic times, NPR is asking for its yearly donations to keep rolling. So if you're able, it would be a prime time to toss them a few dollars.

That said, another great This American Life this week, the theme being "people who ruin it for the rest of us." The meat of the program had to do with a family who had opted out of giving their son the MMR vaccine. The kid caught the measles in Europe and brought the disease back to suburban California, where an outbreak caught fire and caused a dozen children to come down with the frequently fatal disease. It's a shame that the link between vaccination and autism was published (later retracted) in a British medical journal.

In San Diego, no one died from the outbreak, although it cost several families lots of money and time to deal with the consequences. Since the MMR is given at about twelve months, even parents who were pro-vaccine were affected. Both sides felt vindicated by the result - no children died so, hey, measles must not be so bad after all, no reason to risk permanent health effects with a vaccine. People who were pro-vaccine saw that outbreaks were a risk of the gaps in the mesh of herd immunity.

The last story is a stark reminder that not everyone sees the world in the same way that you do.