It’s kind of a circular problem: If we’re ever going to get people back to work, they need child care. But those child care workers are out of work, too. As Congress weighs new coronavirus relief programs, both parties are making a point to devote billions to child care. But America’s child care system has been in crisis long before this pandemic. Today, Washington Post reporter Valerie Strauss walks us through it. Plus, we’ll hear from a Vermont sheep farmer with a new side hustle, and Kai Ryssdal answers the Make Me Smart question again.

As always, you can find a list of everything we talked about today at makemesmart.org.