Make Me Smart

This year alone, lawmakers in more than two dozen states have introduced or passed legislation in favor of ranked choice voting systems, where voters rank candidates in order of preference on their ballot.

Advocates sing the praises of ranked-choice elections, claiming it could be an antidote to the United States’ extreme political polarization. Others say switching to a new voting system would be too complicated for voters.

On the show today, Maresa Strano, deputy director of political reform at New America, unpacks ranked choice voting: what it does well, where it falls short, and what our voting systems have to do with the broader economy.

Then, a new strategy for wiping out medical debt is catching the attention of some local governments. And we’ll get into why mixed signals about the U.S. economy are complicating things for the Biden campaign.

Later, a listener shares how they learned the difficulty of farm work firsthand. Plus, this week’s answer to the Make Me Smart Question comes from sci-fi writer Andy Weir, author of “The Martian.”

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “How Ranked-Choice Voting Works” from The New York Times
• • “What We Know About Ranked-Choice Voting” from New America
• • “The Hottest Political Reform of the Moment Gains Ground” from Politico
• • “RCV is Neither Panacea nor Catastrophe for Minority Representation” from New America
• • “Oregon becomes the latest state to put ranked choice voting on the ballot” from NBC News
• • “U.S. Incomes Fall for Third Straight Year” from The Wall Street Journal
• • “A new way to tackle medical debt gains traction.” from The Washington Post

We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Despite a long period of relative stagnation, nuclear power has remained the quiet backbone of the United States’ clean energy supply for decades. Now, the Joe Biden administration wants more from the sector as the country hustles to meet ambitious emissions goals.

Jigar Shah, the director of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, said nuclear energy will only become more critical as demand for electricity surges over the next 20 years.

On the show today, Shah makes us smart about how much the country relies on nuclear energy. We’ll also discuss lessons learned from building the first nuclear reactor from scratch in decades, and how the industry plans to win over Americans who are concerned about safety and toxic waste.

Then, we’ll get into the high stakes of today’s vote for speaker of the House of Representatives. And Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink is part of geopolitical conversation yet again, this time in Israel.

Later, we’ll hear from a teacher about the expectations that educators pay for classroom supplies themselves. And this week’s answer to the Make Me Smart question comes from Kai Bird, co-author of “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Nuclear power is having a resurgence” from Axios
• • “Utilities Want to Convert Coal Plants to Nuclear; Skeptics Abound” from The Wall Street Journal
• • “New Georgia reactor shows benefits and costs of nuclear power” from Marketplace
• • “Study identifies reasons for soaring nuclear plant cost overruns in the U.S.” from MIT News
• • “Advanced Nuclear – Pathways to Commercial Liftoff” from The Department of Energy
• • “NRC Certifies First U.S. Small Modular Reactor Design” from The Department of Energy
• • “Playbook: Jim Jordan’s day of reckoning” from Politico
• • “Google, Amazon, Apple could see antitrust bills put on hold if Jim Jordan is House speaker” from CNBC
• • “Israel Latest: Musk’s Starlink Approached as Biden Readies Trip” from Bloomberg

We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Meta’s new Threads became the most quickly downloaded app on Wednesday, its opening day. Twitter’s not thrilled about it. We’ll get into why folks may or may not gravitate toward the app and whether any of the “new Twitters” can become a true social media hub. And, could a scandal involving a celebrated behavioral science researcher impact the way we engage with pop science? Plus, guest host Reema Khrais leads us in a new game.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over Threads” from Semafor
• • “All the red flags in the Threads privacy policy” from Quartz
• • “Meta’s Threads Proves That Social Media Cannot Die” from The Atlantic
• • “The Harvard Expert on Dishonesty Who Is Accused of Lying” from The Atlantic
• • This week’s newsletter from Marketplace’s “This Is Uncomfortable”

Got a question about the economy, business or technology for the hosts? Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email us at [email protected].

Congress hasn’t passed meaningful immigration policy reform in decades. And the fate of the border deal the Senate has been weighing is looking bleak. But immigrants are an important part of the U.S. economy, and the status quo is not working. So what do we do? On the show today, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an immigration law professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and author of the new book “Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the ‘Criminal Alien,'” explains why our current immigration policies don’t match the country’s economic needs, what a realistic approach to immigration would look like, and why states and cities might have to take the lead on the issue if Congress continues to stagnate.

Then, we’ll break down the betting forecast for this year’s Super Bowl by the numbers. And, Big Tech’s AI crutch. Plus, we’ll get smarter about cicadas!

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “The Senate border deal is dead” from The Washington Post
• • “Detention and that border ‘shutdown’: What’s really in Biden’s bipartisan immigration deal” from Politico
• • “Before Title 42, Congress Failed to Overhaul Immigration Policy” from The New York Times
• • “Biden weighs a “shocking” revival of Trump’s immigration agenda” from Vox
• • “Texas’ Standoff With the Border Patrol Is a Constitutional Powder Keg” from Mother Jones
• • “Immigration has returned to pre-pandemic numbers. How does that affect the economy?” from Marketplace
• • “Tech Layoffs Just Keep Coming as Sector Resets for AI” from The Wall Street Journal
• • “The Super Bowl is expected to smash betting records. Nearly 68M US adults plan to wager” from AP News
• • “Cicada brood map 2024: When and where billions of the bugs will emerge” from Vox

We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

A $14.3 billion Israel aid package from the House GOP is in the works, and some Republican representatives are looking into unconventional ways to fund it. We’ll get into where U.S. military aid usually ends up and who stands to make a profit from global conflict. Plus, how the media coverage leading up to the 2024 election often makes false equivalencies between the speaking abilities of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

Here’s everything we talked about:

• • “House GOP announces standalone $14.3 billion Israel aid package, setting up Senate clash — Live Updates” from Politico
• • “Ukraine war orders starting to boost revenues for big US defense contractors” from Reuters
• • “Israel’s Economy Set to Shrink 11% as Hamas War Escalates: JPMorgan” from Bloomberg
• • “Trump’s Verbal Slips Could Weaken His Attacks on Biden’s Age” from The New York Times
• • “‘I had no idea I’d become a national event’: Orson Welles on the mass hysteria of The War of the Worlds” from BBC Culture

Do you have a question that you want to ask us or a comment about something we talked about? Call us at 508-U-B-SMART or email [email protected].