Dec 19, 2008
Stories of people who ruin things for everyone else...or who are accused of that. Like the San Diego parents who didn't vaccinate their child for measles.
When their seven-year-old caught the disease on an overseas trip, this decision became a whole community's problem. The outbreak infected 11 children and endangered many others. Also: Comedian Mike Birbiglia singlehandedly ruins a big charity event, and the disquieting truth about Amtrak's Quiet Car.
- There's this haven on the U.S. railroad—the Amtrak Quiet Car. You can't yammer on your cell phone in the Quiet Car, or yuck it up with your friends, or even talk above a murmur. For This American Life Producer Nancy Updike, who commutes between New York and Washington, D.C., it's bliss. But then Nancy began to notice that the more she rode the Quiet Car, the more she was becoming like an enforcer in a fascist fraternity. (18 minutes)
The measles virus.