The Mock Review with Ben and Drew

Latest Episodes:

Episode 34: AMTA Goes Online (with Sam Jahangir) Jul 30, 2020

Show notes

Ben and Drew are joined by AMTA Board Candidate and University of Chicago coach Sam Jahangir for a roundtable discussion on the 2020 AMTA Board meeting. Topics covered include the decision to move the 2020-21 season online, the decision to scrap the original 2020-21 case topic, the motion to permit the CRC to issue warnings, the motion to ban scouting, and the fact that the Board meeting was live streamed this year. Ben also announces that he's now running a law school mock trial program in addition to UMBC, and Drew announces that he'll be doing some teaching this summer for Mock On Academy.

Episode 33: Summer Topic Rundown (with Sonali Mehta) Jul 10, 2020

Show notes

Drew and Ben cover the last few months in AMTA, including Ben's experience coaching at Trial by Combat again and thoughts on virtual mock trial, the final cancellation of the 2020 season, the One Last Time Tournament, the announcement of the Student Advisory Board, the 2020-21 case topic, and the important motions up for debate at the 2020 AMTA Board of Directors meeting. Then Sonali Mehta, Seva Castleberry and Eric Roytman join the podcast to discuss Sonali's victory at the 2020 Trial by Combat tournament.

Episode 32: 2020 Trial by Combat Preview, Part Two (with Abbie Heller) Jun 18, 2020

Show notes

On part two of our 2020 Trial by Combat preview, Drew and Ben are joined by Abbie Heller, the Assistant Director of Trial Advocacy at the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Abbie gives some insight on how the trial advocacy program works at Drexel, and then goes into detail on how she and Justin Bernstein of UCLA Law are adapting Trial by Combat for an online format. Finally, Abbie gives the Mock Review an exclusive preview of the 2020 TBC case.

Episode 31: 2020 Trial by Combat Preview, Part One Jun 15, 2020

Show notes

In part one of our 2020 Trial by Combat preview series, Ben and Drew are joined by two 2020 TBC competitors: Regina Campbell of Chicago and Sonali Mehta of Duke. Regina was accompanied by witness Peter Bound, and they discussed Chicago's mock trial program, the disappointment of not finishing the season in their hometown, and how Regina is going to approach preparing for Trial by Combat virtually after competing in person last year. After that, Sonali spoke to Ben and Drew about her preparation process, getting stabbed by a demonstrative bag at an invitational, and how she's going to work with her coach and second chair at TBC.

Episode 30: A Mock Trial Roundtable (with Nat Warner) May 17, 2020

Show notes

For this episode, Ben and Drew try something different. Nat Warner of Wesleyan joined the show for a roundtable discussion on a wide variety of topics, including the possibility of finishing the 2020 season online, the new ORCS pairing system and how Nat and Ben experienced it during ORCS this year, whether AMTA should add a tournament for teams who narrowly miss NCT, what areas AMTA does well and where they can improve, and whether mimicry is a problem in Mock Trial. (Editor's note: Ben's audio is lower quality than usual for this episode due to an error while recording.)

Episode 29: AMTA Tabulation Director Johnathan Woodward Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Tabulation Director Johnathan Woodward spoke with Ben and Drew for a wide-ranging conversation about mock trial, including his thoughts on the new ORCS pairing system, some examples of the best calls he's gotten from AMTA Representatives during competition season, how AMTA pairing and tabulation systems have evolved over the years, what it's like to announce the winner of the National Championship Tournament, and whether he thinks AMTA would ever go to an electronic tabulation or pairing system.

Episode 28: The College Mock Trial Online Championship (with Justin Bernstein) Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Friend of the pod Justin Bernstein returns to talk with Ben and Drew about the College Mock Trial Online Championship, a recent competition hosted by UCLA Law School. Justin breaks down the origins of the idea, how the scoring and judging worked, what interesting trends he saw in the scoring data, and when we should expect to start seeing the results.

Episode 27: Winning Objections: A Mock Trial Guidebook Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

On the latest episode, authors Brian Pilchik, Amanda Mundell and Emily Miller join Drew and Ben to discuss their book, Winning Objections: A Mock Trial Guidebook. The authors go through how the idea for the book was hatched, their writing and editing process, why the book is structured the way it is, and what they hope competitors and coaches will get from the book. Then Ben and Drew give their review of the book at the end of the episode.

Episode 26: Hosting and Postponing a National Championship (with Devon Holstad) Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

Drew and Ben discuss hosting and postponing the 2020 National Championship Tournament with Devon Holstad, a coach and former competitor at Loyola Chicago. Devon goes through the planning process for hosting an NCT, how things have been behind the scenes since the COVID-19 pandemic developed to the point where the NCT had to be postponed, and his program's philosophy on the "World Cup" bid for NCT hosts.

Episode 25: ORCS Analysis, Week One Mar 16, 2020

Show notes

Drew and Ben break down results from the first five ORCS: Cedar Rapids, Cincinnati, Geneva, Lancaster, and Santa Monica. They also discuss the latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic since AMTA announced the postponement of all remaining tournaments last week.

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