Choosing Better

What are we doing when we cast a ballot? Enoch and Tim start with an uncomfortable fact: statistically, a single vote almost never decides an election. So why vote? They explore the idea that voting is less about controlling the outcome and more about expressing what we desire, which frees us to vote our values rather than game the result. They also compare different election rules and the ways voting can work in different contexts.Recording Date: September 24, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

Enoch and Tim examine capital punishment in the United States, not only whether the death penalty can be morally justified, but whether the modern state can carry it out justly and humanely. From lethal injection and nitrogen gas to the return of the firing squad, they explore recent failed and contested executions, the arguments for and against the death penalty, and what these cases reveal about justice, human dignity, repentance, and the limits of state power.Correction: Michael Jackson did not die due to pentobarbital; reports suggest he died from acute propofol intoxication combined with the effects of sedatives (benzodiazepines).Recording Date: October 6, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

Longtime behind-the-scenes listener and former student Donovan Gleeson joins Enoch and Tim to ask why political disagreement now feels more personal than religious disagreement. They explore what happens when politics shifts from facts and opinions to belief and identity, why masks and yard signs became tribal signals, and how COVID forced churches to pick sides and sorted congregations along political lines. Recording Date: September 18, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

Is freedom doing whatever you want, or becoming what you were made to be? Enoch and Tim trace the shift from classical to modern freedom, from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill's harm principle, and ask what we lost along the way. Why can we only argue about usury, cheating, or assisted suicide in terms of harm and victims, when what many of us really believe is "it's just wrong"? Recording Date: March 26, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

Enoch and Tim discuss privacy in an age of data, AI, and mass surveillance. Using Flock cameras as a central example, they explore the benefits and drawbacks of the new technology that has drawn such backlash. They compare Flock tocorporate data systems like Ring, consider how privacy laws might have such a hard time catching up with technology, and challenge the idea that “nothing to hide” means nothing to fear.  Correction: In the episode Enoch incorrectly stated that each vehicle in the US gets scanned an average of over 800 times per day that should have been per year.Recording Date: September 1, 2026 Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

America is coming apart. The most likely place for a college educated adult to meet their spouse is at university. This is not just true for some college and universities; it is true for just about every university. But what happens when intelligent people leave their hometowns for university study, meet “the one”, and then settle down? We begin to sort our very neighborhoods and towns my education and merit. Fewer than half of Americans have a college degree, yet most people with a college degree live in towns where most of their neighbors also have college degrees. Join Enoch and Tim as they explain this social problem and throw out some ideas on how to fix it.Note: We accidentally posted these in reverse order, so last week was part two on this topic and this week is part I. Hope you enjoy!Reference: Coming Apart by Charles Murray (2012).Recording Date: May 7, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

Update: I (Enoch) accidentally had my recordings mis-labeled and posted the wrong episode this week (Which means the old show-notes didn't match). We're keeping the episode posted, but this was the second part in a two parter. Stay tuned for the first part ... next! Correct show notes for this episode below.What if America’s political divide is no longer just playing out at the ballot box, but at the wedding altar and in the nursery? Enoch and Tim discuss how ideology is increasingly shaping who people marry, why nearly 80% of spouses now share the same political outlook, and what this reveals about the deep social sorting underway in the United States. The conversation then turns to the growingfertility gap between conservatives and liberals, with Tim sharing insights from recent research by the Verity Research Lab that highlights stark differences in how each group views children, parenting, and family life. Together, these patterns point to more than political disagreement, they suggest two diverging visions of marriage, family, and the future of America.Reference: Coming Apart by Charles Murray (2012).Recording Date: May 14, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

When does prenatal screening determine whether a child will be born at all? In this episode of Choosing Better, Enoch and Tim explore Down syndrome, abortion, eugenics, and the quiet social pressures that shape “choice.” From viral controversy and global termination rates to Tim’s research on Down syndrome birthrates, they ask what we are missing when children with disabilities are screened out and disappear from our communities. The conversation ends with a call to choose better by building communities where families facing a pregnancy with Down syndrome are met with courage, support, and love.Commercial referenced in the episode can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju-q4OnBtNU. Tim’s full public lecture can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULqFaSh3nG0.

Brigadier General Joe Rank, U.S. Army (Ret.), joins Choosing Better to discuss what recent events in the Middle East reveal about deterrence, resilience, and the future of regional security. General Rank and Tim explore how missile, drone, cyber, and information threats are reshaping modern conflict; why integrated air and missile defense and interoperability matter more than ever; and how Gulf states are balancing diplomacy, deterrence, and national resilience. The conversation looks ahead to the capabilities, partnerships, and choices that will define Middle East security in the years to come.Recording Date: July 1, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)

Are we entering a dystopian future of grocery shopping if your personal data is being used to set hyper-specific prices just for you? And what if that price changes based upon the day of the week, time of day, how fast you drove to the grocery store, or in what order you did your shopping? Maryland recently became the first state to ban AI-enabled “surveillance pricing” on grocery stores. That sounds like a good thing, but what if we benefit from targeted prices? Join Enoch and Tim as they discuss the nature of price discrimination and who wins/loses when firms know what we are willing to pay.We highly recommend you listen to our previous episode: AJust Price or Juts a Price?Recording Date: May 27, 2026Credits: Drew Elliot (music)