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:

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.