Choosing Better

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)

How can we know if the car we want to buy is not a lemon? Or how can we sincerely communicate how much we love a romantic partner? Oftentimes in life we encounter information asymmetries. We struggle to make ideal decisions with incomplete knowledge or even to signal our own intentions when an audience may not believe us. Enoch and Tim talk about examples in or everyday lives and discuss strategies to help live in a world with uneven information.Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: November 7, 2025

The saints are more than folk tales and stories for children. They are true lives of Christian men and women who lived faithfully. Professor of Art History at Wheaton College, Dr. Matthew Milliner, joins Enoch and Tim as they discuss how we can benefit from learning deeply from the saints. They compare the Catholic and Protestant traditions and share how choosing to be influenced by examples of saints may form and strengthen our faith.Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: October 29, 2025

Enoch and Tim interview Dr. Del Tackett, an acclaimed educator whose teaching materials have impacted over 20 million people across more than 100 countries. The conversation centers on the critical role that meta-narratives, or worldviews, play in shaping what individuals believe and pursue in their personal pursuits of flourishing. Their conversation challenges the widespread assumption of neutrality, arguing that everyone operates from an underlying worldview whether they acknowledge it or not. The discussion provides listeners with both a framework for understanding their own beliefs and practical insights into how deliberate worldview formation can guide life's most important choices and priorities.Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: October 14, 2025

Summary: Enoch and Tim challenge the assumption that welfare policy is a modern invention by exploring social safety nets in ancient societies. The conversation centers on the Old Testament's laws of Jubilee, examining the theological and practical purposes behind these ancient provisions for economic redistribution and debt relief. Rather than treating these historical practices as mere curiosities, they draw connections between ancient wisdom and contemporary welfare debates, asking what principles from these time-tested systems might inform modern policy design. Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: September 25, 2025

In this bonus episode of Choosing Better, Enoch and Tim dig deep into the sweeping changes to the U.S. H-1B visa system following the shock announcement of a $100,000 application fee. They break down the policy’s potential upsides and downsides, discuss its implications, and explore what it might mean for the future of American immigration. The U.S. immigration system is overviewed and some shocking trivia is revealed.Credits: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Drew Elliot⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (music) with additional thanks to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Recording Date: 25 September, 2025