Avsnitt
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What are the greatest inventions in history and how should we think about gains for human wellbeing? Join Enoch and Tim alongside special guest Dr. Jason Long, an economic historian at Wheaton College, as they discuss the greatest moments for growth and standards of living in economic history. In this episode, we explore key technologies and inventions that have fundamentally improved human livesand made daily existence healthier, safer, and more connected. The conversation concludes with a look at future innovations and how they might continue the legacy of these “greatest hits”.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: 13 November 2024
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The war on uncut lawns and drabby clothes lines is being waged across great cities and small towns alike! But is it reasonable to place limits on how one can use their own property when they live in neighborhoods where any one person’s actions affect their neighbors? Join Enoch and Tim as they discuss the purpose and use of zoning regulations and how these rules impact the private spaces of our homes.Their commitments to individual liberties are stressed as they consider when, if ever, constraints are beneficial for cities and the flourishing of living in community.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 3 October 2024 -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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When couples struggle with infertility and want their own baby, should they turn to the marketplace? Advances in modern medicine provide an array of options to individuals and couples, but should we be concerned when we put a price on fertility and childbirth? Join Enoch and Tim as they discuss the complexity of the modern global market for sperm, eggs, embryos, and surrogacy. They grapple with their commitments to individual free choice and what may be lost when we buy and sell the very components of human life.
Warning: This episode may not be appropriate for younger ages.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: 12 September 2024
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The world will get smaller. Birth rate have fallen continuously for decades and are predicted to continue to decline. How big of a problem is this? And what is causing men and women across the world to choose smaller families? Join Enoch and Tim as they explore reasons for the decline in fertility and what, if anything, should be done to address the birth dearth. And be sure to listen as Enoch casually shares a personal revelation midway through the episode which surprises Tim to no end.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 5 September 2024 -
We cannot help but measure–whether it is what we look at or talk about – we are assessing. But we need to be careful about what we select to measure because it reflects what we value. And as we agree on particular measurements, they quickly influence the very things we value! Join Enoch and Tim as they discuss their favorite measurements and examine how our values are formed by our assessments. We choose better measurements which orient our hearts toward relationships and the good life.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 29 August 2024
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The United States makes the most prolific use of economic sanctions in global affairs. But are these sanctions even effective? And are the benefits worth thecosts? Join Enoch and Tim as they discuss the logic of sanctions and their effectiveness while exploring whether the carrot is more beneficial than the stick. And have some fun while wandering into topics of integrity and theSummer Olympics.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 30 July 2024
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Better to be a realist or an idealist? Economists and political scientists often stress a view of how the world is rather than what it ought to be. But how should we as individuals view our world and the people inhabiting it? Enoch and Tim discuss the merits of both perspectives as they think through when we should choose to be realists and when is it better to be idealists.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 17 June 2024
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What is the best way to craft a welfare system which bestmaximizing the flourishing of citizens? Tim and Enoch discuss the nature of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a replacement to existing welfare programs and review findings on the effectiveness of UBI. As usual, the discussion goes beyond economics and politics as they discuss why lower income populations have worse outcomes such as life expectancy and whether adding money will meaningfully address the problem. They end while reflecting on the very goal of welfare systems and whether countries ever take the time to consider what it means to flourish.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 23 July 2024
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Richard Hughes Gibson, a Professor of English at Wheaton College, joins Enoch and Tim to discuss the history and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. How is AI distinct from other technological advances and how will it shape the course of history? Professor Gibson has written extensively on the topic and shares his insights as well as assuages fears for an imminent apocalypse.
If you want to read Dr. Gibson on the intellectual origins of today’s text generators, try his article “Language Machinery” that ran in Hedgehog Review last fall (not currently paywalled):
https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/markets-and-the-good/articles/language-machinery
Gibson’s shorter essay on “The New Verbal Economy” is also available on the Hedgehog website:
https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/the-new-verbal-economy
If you are looking for an accessible introduction to the history of AI research and development, get a copy of Michael Wooldridge’s _A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence_(2021). It was published before the public debut of ChatGPT, so it is already(!) a little bit out of date. But Wooldridge tells the back story of AI exceptionally well, and he *does* include a great chapter on deep learning and the company DeepMind toward the end that is very helpful for understanding current state of machine learning.
If you want an accessible introduction to the breakthrough behind today’s writing machines, so-called “large language models,” try Cal Newport’s article for The New Yorker “What Kind of Mind Does ChatGPT Have?”.
https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have
Some tech writers for The New York Times built an imitation of ChatGPT, called BabyGPT, that offers an illuminating window into how the “prediction engines” inside these bots improve by testing themselves in training. You need to get over the paywall here; but it’s worth the effort.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/26/upshot/gpt-from-scratch.html
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 19 September 2024
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If people seek likeminded groups to avoid conflict, is our very anxiety toward disagreement fueling polarization? Having recently read The Anxious Generation (Jonathan Haidt), Enoch runs a new hypothesis by Tim about anxiety as a cause of polarization. They discuss the nature of polarization and whether young people are more polarized than older generations. Some theories are meant to fly while other fall short. Join the fun to learn if Enoch’s ideas fly too close to the sun.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 12 June 2024 -
Civilizations across history have had an aristocracy to govern politics and culture. The advent of democracy levelled society and made us all equals, but can we ever truly rid ourselves of a ruling class which dictate trends and values? Join Enoch and Tim as they discuss the benefits and harms of an aristocracy and what is lost when we free ourselves from the ruling class.
Credits: Drew Elliot(music) with additional thanks to the WheatonCenter for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 23 May 2024
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How far should we go when we plan our families and what should guide us when we consider fertility? Bioethicist Dr. Calum MacKellar joins Tim in conversation on the equality of all life and the growing challenges of eugenics as parents select which children to welcome into their families and which to turn away. What may have looked like the horrors of the 20th Century are making a resurgence in many western societies.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 1 May 2024
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Free speech is a bedrock of American democratic society and oftentimes protected above other rights. However, many who consider some rhetoric as harmful and potentially violent have called for certain limits to free expression such as Scotland’s hate crime law (entered into force April 1, 2024). Enoch and Tim freely express themselves on the benefits and challenges of free speech toward a flourishing society.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 15 April 2024
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Did you know that conditional on giving birth, the probability of having a C-section is 10 times more likely in Mexico than in Sudan? Perhaps more surprising is that people who give birth in our local hospital are more than two times as likely to have a C-section than in the next closest hospital.
Life is inherently risky. Sometimes these risks lead to situations where we need outside help. But what if that outside help is also risky? In this episode Enoch and Tim discuss the interaction of risk aversion, medical intervention, and cultural norms. Listen in and decide for yourself whether you are pro-cedure or anti.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: 21 March 2024
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Reports of loneliness are soaring in some the most wealthy and peaceful societies in world history. According to a CDC study from 2021, 57 percent of teenage girls “felt persistently sad or hopeless”, an alarming rise from the already high 36 percent of teenage girls who reported hopelessness in 2011. Enoch and Tim discuss the scale of the problem and consider what could possibly be causing so many individuals to feel isolated and alone. But choosing hope is always an option as possible solutions are plentiful for deeply interconnected lives!
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.Recording Date: 6 March 2024
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What should be the top priorities when designing a country’s education system? There has been a slow movement in school curriculum away from the moral formation of the person and toward job preparedness. Enoch and Tim discuss the challenges of moral instruction under pluralism and ask each other what we most prioritize in the education of our children. Grab your copy of Plato’s Republic and sharpen those No. 2 pencils for the AP Biology exam as we talk about the purpose of education!
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 28 February 2024
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Many societies are advancing assisted suicide as a viable option in the arsenal of the healthcare provider. But this breaks from longstanding duties of the physician to not administer poisons as evidenced in the Hippocratic Oath from antiquity. Enoch and Tim discuss the limits of individual autonomy and the morality of assisted suicide in a liberal democratic society.Warning: In this episode, the topic of suicide is discussed
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 21 February 2024
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Who determines what land can be owned and the rules of ownership? From the freedom to roam in Scotland to communal decisions in Oaxaca to racial restrictions in American Samoa, the rules of private property are as diverse as the nations. Enoch and Tim discuss these differences and talk about some of the benefits and challenges of private property rights. But first, some trivia!
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the WheatonCenter for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 15 February 2024
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Who would want to grant a legal monopoly to an individual or even a corporation? While we want to encourage research and development, creativity, and taking risks, we also love the competition of the marketplace and the resulting lower prices for our favorite inventions and creations. In this episode, Enoch and Tim discuss intellectual property rights and consider the optimal duration to grant monopolies through patents and copyrights all while having a lot of fun.
Credits: Drew Elliot (music) with additional thanks to the WheatonCenter for Faith, Politics & Economics.
Recording Date: 14 February 2024
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Thank you so much for making our first season a success. We've both been overwhelmed by the positive feedback regarding the podcast and have been pleasantly surprised that not everyone thinks we're crazy (or at least that there are so many people who enjoy joining in our craziness).
We've both temporarily moved out of the country which has made recording a bit of a challenge. We're exploring how we can continue to record from a distance, but it will be a few weeks at the earliest before we are able to start making new episodes again. Hope you'll join us for season 2 when it's available and until then, keep choosing better! (Maybe even after then).
- Visa fler
