The Mock Review with Ben and Drew

Episode 93: The Mock Review is Ending Dec 22, 2023

Ben and Drew return to your feed to announce that this is the final scheduled episode of The Mock Review, and then discuss this year's case and their general thoughts on AMTA, transparency, and where things go from here.

Episode 92: 2023 Trial by Combat Champion Travis Harper Jul 21, 2023

Ben and Drew are joined by 2023 Trial by Combat Champion Travis Harper of Harvard Mock Trial. Travis returns to the show to discuss their experience during the 2023 AMTA season, how Harvard handled taking a hybrid A/B team to AMTA Nationals, why Travis decided to return to TBC for a third time, and what it was like to end his college Mock Trial career with a TBC championship.

Episode 91: 2023 Board Meeting Preview Jul 12, 2023

Drew and Ben discuss the upcoming 2023 AMTA Board Meeting and go through the proposed motions in the agenda. They discuss motions related to increased fees, invention of fact, diversity and inclusion, and some tabled motions that are unlikely to pass.

Episode 90: 2023 Trial by Combat Preview Jun 23, 2023

Ben and Drew discuss recent events in the AMTA community including the pending announcement of Rookie Rumble, and then break down the 16 competitors in the 2023 Trial by Combat field.

Episode 89: UCLA Wins the National Championship May 19, 2023

Ben and Drew talk with Michael Blaine and Connor Nickson of UCLA Mock Trial about winning the 2023 National Championship Tournament. Michael and Connor discuss what it is like to compete for such a successful and storied program at UCLA, how their program approached this year's Nationals case, their path through the NCT field and how close we came to a UCLA v UCLA final round, and some of the key moments during the UCLA v Harvard final. Before the interview, Drew and Ben briefly discuss some notes from Nationals, the Trial by Combat play-in tournament, and the status of some of this year's sanctions.

Episode 88: Nationals Analysis Apr 21, 2023

Drew and Ben discuss the 2023 National Championship Tournament, including Drew's victory in the Mock Review draft, the 2023-24 case teaser, the NCT case balance statistics and reasons for the defense bias, and results from each of the two divisions at Nationals.

Episode 87: Nationals Preview (with Henry Leaman) Apr 13, 2023

Drew and Ben are joined by Notre Dame coach Henry Leaman to discuss the 2023 AMTA National Championship Tournament. Ben, Drew, and Henry participate in the first-ever Mock Review draft, where each host/guest has five picks and a "dark horse" pick to select who they think will have the strongest performance at this year's NCT.

Episode 86: Skye v Gold (with Sarah Stebbins and Justin Bernstein) Apr 12, 2023

Ben and Drew are joined by Sarah Stebbins and Justin Bernstein of the UCLA Law Trial Team to discuss Robin Skye v. Aubrey Gold, the 2023 National Championship Tournament case. Sarah and Justin discuss how they settled on the idea for a legal malpractice case, why the UCLA Trial Team ended up writing the case, how the committee approached designing the case and choosing witnesses, and how the case authors considered questions around case balance and invention of fact.

Episode 85: ORCS Analysis, Week Two Mar 24, 2023

Ben and Drew discuss the two ORCS results in week two and go through some final case balance statistics from Felder v. Koller Campbell Air.

Episode 84: ORCS Analysis, Week One Mar 22, 2023

Ben and Drew discuss results from the first six 2023 Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) tournaments.

Episode 83: Regionals Analysis, Week Four Mar 03, 2023

Ben and Drew discuss the ORCS case changes, the post-Regionals case balance memorandum, and the state of the open bid list. Then, Ben and Drew go through results from the nine Regionals in week four.

Episode 82: Regionals Analysis, Week Three Feb 24, 2023

Drew and Ben discuss the eleven Regionals in week three (not twelve like we say multiple times on the show) and talk through some of the implications of the current state of the open bid list.

Episode 81: Regionals Analysis, Week Two Feb 17, 2023

Drew and Ben discuss the recent results from Drew's TYLA National Trial Competition Regional, where his Tulane Law team advanced to Nationals. Then Ben and Drew go through the three AMTA Regional tournaments held in week two.

Episode 80: Regionals Analysis, Week One Feb 10, 2023

Drew and Ben discuss results from the nine AMTA Regional tournaments in week one.

Episode 79: January Invites + California Funding Challenges Jan 27, 2023

Ben and Drew are joined by Melissa Toussimehr of Cal Poly SLO Mock Trial to discuss California AB 1887, which restricts using state funds for travel to states with discriminatory laws. Melissa discusses how this has impacted her program and how it will make travel difficult if they advance to Nationals. Then Drew and Ben break down several January invitationals, including Great Chicago Fire, Ramblin' Wreck, Beach Party, and UCLASSIC.

Episode 78: Case Changes + Final Fall Results Dec 23, 2022

Ben and Drew round out the fall invitational season by discussing the results at CUBAIT and Yale, and then discuss the December case changes and the CIC invention advisory opinions released with case changes.

Episode 77: More Fall Results + Case Balance Dec 02, 2022

Drew and Ben go through recent invitational tab summaries from around the country, including GAMTI results and several other tournaments, and pick out a few teams they've noticed this fall. Ben and Drew also discuss some early case balance numbers, and talk about the Regionals assignments that were recently released by AMTA.

Episode 76: Fall Too Well, Mock Version (with Ben Wallace) Nov 18, 2022

Ben and Drew are joined by Ben Wallace of South Carolina Mock Trial to discuss results from the Fall 2022 invitational season. Ben, Drew, and Ben go through results from the South, Northeast, Midwest, and West, and discuss which teams are starting strong and standing out so far.

Episode 75: Looking Back at 75 Episodes Nov 14, 2022

For the 75th episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew welcome two special guests to look back at the last 4+ years. Jordan McGuffee of Haverford Mock Trial and Thomas Azari of UMBC Mock Trial join for this episode to turn the mics around and interview Ben and Drew. You'll hear about Drew's origin story at Haverford, Ben's time as a competitor at UMBC, Ben and Drew's favorite episodes and dream guests, and where they see the podcast going from here.

Episode 74: Civil Case Chairs Elise Wilson & Sam Jahangir Oct 07, 2022

Drew and Ben are joined by Civil Case Committee Co-Chairs Elise Wilson and Sam Jahangir to discuss the 2022-23 AMTA case, Felder v. Koller Campbell Air. Elise and Sam talk about the inspiration for this year's case, how they worked together as co-chairs, how they decided on certain issues like expert witnesses and affirmative defenses, and how they each approach the challenge of writing a balanced case.

Episode 73: Looking Ahead to the Season Sep 30, 2022

Drew and Ben sit down to discuss a few things related to this season, including the inagural Empire Baltimore Camden Yards Classic, their upcoming interview with case co-chairs Sam and Elise, how the Patreon and Discord are going, their periodic frustration with AMTA's transparency and willingness to speak publicly, and what they are looking forward to in the Fall 2022 invitational season.

If you haven't joined The Mock Review on Patreon, you can do so at Patreon.com/TheMockReview.

Episode 72: AMTA President Johnathan Woodward Sep 16, 2022

Ben and Drew are joined by AMTA President Johnathan Woodward. Johnathan returns to the show to discuss why he decided to run for President, where he sees AMTA heading right now, his efforts to improve the diversity of the AMTA board and the organization as a whole, and his thoughts on the 2022 AMTA Board of Directors meeting.

Episode 71: Felder v Koller Campbell Air & Rhodes Mock Trial (with Anna Eldridge) Sep 02, 2022

Drew and Ben are joined by Anna Eldridge, the director of Rhodes Mock Trial, to discuss the 2022 case and Anna's history in AMTA. Anna goes through her origin story - including an incredible story of cross examining a former White House Press Secretary while in high school - and talks about what it's like to direct a program as storied as Rhodes. After that, Anna, Ben and Drew discuss the 2022 case, Felder v Koller Campbell Air, and get Anna's thoughts as a former AMTA case committee member on how the case reads to her and what she's watching for as the 2022-23 season gets underway.

Episode 70: Rookie Rumble Aug 15, 2022

Ben and Drew discuss their experiences coaching at Rookie Rumble, the 2022 summer tournament hosted by AMTA and open to rising sophomores and juniors. Then Ben and Drew are joined by Katie Volpert of Penn Mock Trial to discuss winning Rookie Rumble with her teammates from Penn, Rutgers, and Georgia Tech.

Episode 69: Board Meeting Review + Rookie Rumble Case Jul 25, 2022

In the first segment, Ben and Drew are joined by Nat Warner to discuss the various motions at the 2022 AMTA Board of Directors meeting. In the second segment, Nat stays on and is joined by Kate Hayner-Slattery. Nat and Kate were both on the Rookie Rumble case committee, and they discuss the process for writing Arensman v. Scanlon and what they're looking forward to at the tournament itself. We hope you enjoy this nice episode of The Mock Review.

Episode 68: A Podcast Announcement + Board Meeting Preview Jul 07, 2022

Ben and Drew start by announcing that we are launching a Patreon to help us hire an editor for the show. The first fifteen minutes of the episode discuss why we're hiring an editor and how our Patreon and Discord will work. (Spoiler alert: there's a free tier!) After that, Ben and Drew go through all eleven invention of fact motions that are set for debate this coming weekend at the AMTA Board Meeting in San Diego, and discuss the merits and potential issues with each motion. We know this is a very long episode, but we wanted to try and go through every motion in as much detail as possible to provide some information before the meeting.

Episode 67: 2022 Trial by Combat Preview (with Phil Pasquarello) Jun 06, 2022

Drexel Law Trial Competition Director Phil Pasquarello joins the show for a wide-ranging discussion on Mock Trial and the 2022 Trial by Combat competition. Phil goes through his time at Delaware as an AMTA competitor, what his program at Drexel Law is like, why he started his very successful video series WatchMock, and more. Phil then addresses the criticism raised on Mock Trial Confessions about this year's TBC field, and gives us a small preview of what to expect in this year's case.

Episode 66: Nationals Analysis May 04, 2022

Ben and Drew discuss results from both divisions at the 2022 AMTA National Championship Tournament, and then discuss a number of topics including COVID protocols at Nationals, the 2022-23 case preview, and the potential summer tournament for freshmen and sophomores. At the end of the episode, Ben and Drew remember some of the best props in AMTA cases, and look back on a challenging but successful 2021-22 season.

Episode 65: Harvard Wins the National Championship Apr 25, 2022

Drew and Ben are joined by Stella Asmerom and Travis Harper of Harvard Mock Trial to discuss Harvard's victory at the 2022 AMTA National Championship in Lancaster, PA. Travis and Stella go through the last three years of their experience with Harvard, from their time as freshmen to building the team that eventually won it all.

Episode 64: ORCS Analysis, Week Two Apr 21, 2022

Yes, we know. This one is just a *little* bit late. We've promise we've got Nationals episodes coming very soon! In the meantime, here's the ORCS Week Two episode we recorded before NCT but Ben never got the chance to finish editing. (He's very sorry.) We chatted with Jack Styler of Wisconsin about their amazing run to Nationals this year, and we went through all four ORCS in week two.

Episode 63: ORCS Analysis, Week One Mar 17, 2022

Drew and Ben discuss the results from the four ORCS in week one.

Episode 62: Regionals Analysis, Week Four Mar 15, 2022

Drew and Ben (belatedly) go through the results from the last ten Regionals in week four.

Episode 61: Regionals Analysis, Week Three Mar 04, 2022

Ben and Drew discuss results from the ten Regional tournaments in week three.

Episode 60: Regionals Analysis, Week Two Feb 19, 2022

Drew and Ben discuss AMTA's decision to hold ORCS and NCT in-person, and break down results from the Regional tournaments in Week 2.

Episode 59: Regionals Analysis, Week One Feb 11, 2022

Ben and Drew break down the first weekend of 2022 Regionals results. We're also joined by Amaya Ronczyk, President of Dillard Mock Trial. Amaya discusses what it felt like to earn Dillard's first bid to ORCS since 2018, and also speaks on the role that HBCUs play in our community, what it's like to compete at an HBCU, and what AMTA should be doing to support HBCUs and encourage competitive diversity in Mock Trial.

Emergency Podcast: AMTA Moves All 2022 Regionals Online Jan 16, 2022

Ben and Drew discuss the recent news that all 2022 AMTA Regional tournaments will be held online.

Episode 58: Looking Back at Fall 2021 (with Dan Cohen) Dec 28, 2021

Ben and Drew are back from a brief fall hiatus, and they are joined by Penn State President Dan Cohen to break down the Fall 2021 season! Ben, Drew and Dan go through results from a small number of fall tournaments, including Mumbo Jumbo, Tobacco Road, AAMTI, Mock at the Rock, Yale, Mocktopia, GAMTI, and Boston Tea Party. Then, the panel discusses the rise in COVID cases and the potential impact on the AMTA season. At the beginning of the show, Ben and Drew take a few moments to acknowledge the passing of Stanford Mock Trial Head Coach Thom Scher, and reflect on Thom's impact on the Mock Trial community.

Episode 57: In-Person Mock Trial is Back* (with Riya Lakkaraju) Oct 29, 2021

After a short hiatus while Drew survives 1L, The Mock Review is back! Ben and Drew are joined by Riya Lakkaraju of Emory Mock Trial for a full report on how in-person mock trial looks right now. Riya discusses competing in a mask while Ben reports from the virtual season. After that, Ben, Drew and Riya debate how the AMTA season is going to look and discuss which teams are separating from the pack this early in the year.

Episode 56: State of Midlands v. Dakota Sutcliffe (with Neal Schuett) Aug 30, 2021

Criminal Case Committee Chair Neal Schuett returns to the show to discuss the 2021-22 case, State of Midlands v. Dakota Sutcliffe. Neal answers questions about the origins of the arson charge and the retrial aspect, why the defendant isn't testifying, and how the committee prepared for the possibility of a hybrid season. Bonus topics include the "live fire" demonstrative possibilites and Neal's perspective on why the committee decided to burn down Chuggie's. (Editor's note: how dare they.)

Episode 55: 2021 Board Meeting Rundown Aug 10, 2021

Ben was present in Denver for the 2021 AMTA Board of Directors meeting, and in this episode Ben and Drew break down what happened at that meeting. Ben goes through what was discussed during the Tournament Administration Committee (TAC) meeting, how AMTA reached their decision on the format for the 2022 season, and his general impressions on how the board meeting went. Then Drew and Ben discuss other motions that were passed at the board meeting, and briefly discuss the results of the 2021 One Last Time Tournament.

Episode 54: 2021 Trial by Combat Champion Audrey Shepard Jul 17, 2021

Drew and Ben are joined by 2021 Trial by Combat Champion Audrey Shepard of UCLA Mock Trial. Audrey goes through her high school Gladiator championship, her time competing in AMTA at Moorpark Community College, what it was like to transfer to UCLA, and her entire experience preparing for, competing at, and winning Trial by Combat - including her extreme guilt at making Bennett Demsky close his cabinets during the final round. Drew and Audrey also discuss the round this past season that Drew judged where Audrey's rooster crowed while she was testifying as Austin Lewis.

Episode 53: In-Person or Online Next Season? (Board Meeting Preview) Jul 07, 2021

With the board meeting set for next weekend, Ben and Drew spoke to two different programs to give perspective from both sides of the discussion about the competition format for next season.

First, Ben and Drew are joined by coaches Beth Georgian and Matt Thornburg from the University of South Carolina Aiken. Beth and Matt discuss why they reached out to AMTA to ask for the 2022 season to be virtual, how their team operates with limited resources and several non-traditional students, and why they think AMTA should require COVID vaccines regardless of the competition format.

Then Vice-President of External Affairs Bret Berry of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville joins the show to discuss why his program contacted AMTA and asked for the 2022 season to be in-person. Bret goes through their concerns of losing institutional knowledge if the 2022 season is virtual and how he thinks either way AMTA needs to provide guidance on how next season is going to look.

Episode 52: 2021 Trial by Combat Preview (and the 2020-21 season) Jun 23, 2021

Ben and Drew are joined by Bennett Demsky of Tufts Mock Trial and Riya Lakkaraju of Emory Mock Trial. The first half of the episode is a discussion of each competitor's origin story and why they think Tufts and Emory are such successful programs. The second half is our 2021 Trial by Combat preview; Bennett and Riya discuss their plans for how to prep the case in 24 hours, what they learned as coach or second chair at TBC last year, and who they hope to face in a round at TBC in 2021.

Episode 51: UMBC Mock Trial (with Sydney Gaskins and Thomas Kiley) Jun 14, 2021

Ben and Drew are joined by Sydney Gaskins and Thomas Kiley of UMBC Mock Trial. Drew takes over interviewing duties as Ben, Sydney and Thomas discuss the journey that was the last four years, how the program overcame some difficult challenges when Sydney and Thomas were freshmen, whether they considered not competing for their senior year in an online season, how they felt as UMBC progressed through the field at Nationals in 2021, and what it was like to win a national championship.

Episode 50: Nationals Analysis Apr 21, 2021

Drew Evans is joined by UMBC Head Coach Ben Garmoe to discuss the results of the 2021 AMTA National Championship Tournament. Ben and Drew talk about UMBC's victory, Yale's incredible performance, and the outstanding teams in both divisions at Nationals.

Episode 49: Nationals Preview (with Gurbir Singh) Apr 13, 2021

Ben and Drew are joined by highly decorated witness Gurbir Singh of Cal Berkeley to break down the NCT field and the prep process, including the challenge of managing burnout and exhaustion this time of year, possible sleeper teams in each division to outperform their TPR, Gurbir's thought on the west coast teams at Nationals (@ u MTCBIAU), who could win the entire tournament, and whether the two divisions are balanced.

Episode 48: Westenmeier v Walton (with Amanda Mundell) Apr 01, 2021

For our first Nationals preview episode, Amanda Mundell returns to the show. Amanda is a member of the National Championship Tournament Civil Case Committee and she discusses how the case committee selected this topic, why they think the topic is sufficiently compelling and interesting to be used at Nationals, and how the committee considered time constraints and case balance when writing Westenmeier v Walton. Happy April Fool's Day!

Episode 47: ORCS Analysis, Week Two Mar 26, 2021

Drew and Ben discuss results from the last four ORCS tournaments and start to look forward to the 2021 National Championship Tournament.

Episode 46: ORCS Analysis, Week One Mar 16, 2021

Ben and Drew discuss some recent decisions by AMTA and break down the first week of 2021 ORCS results. 04:23 - Discussion of recent AMTA moves on TPR and scouting 20:20 - ORCS 1A 34:14 - ORCS 1B 44:15 - ORCS 1C 57:17 - ORCS 1D

Episode 45: Regionals Analysis, Week Four Mar 07, 2021

Ben and Drew discuss the last week of 2021 Regionals and look forward to ORCS.

Episode 44: Regionals Analysis, Week Three Feb 24, 2021

Ben and Drew discuss all the results from week three of the 2021 AMTA Regional season.

Episode 43: Regionals Analysis, Week Two Feb 17, 2021

It's the third year in a row we've done this, I think you get how it works. Ben and Drew discuss the results from Week Two of the 2021 AMTA Regionals (and get a bit loopy in the last five minutes).

Episode 42: Regionals Analysis, Week One Feb 09, 2021

Drew and Ben go through the first week of Regionals results and break down the strong showings and surprising letdowns from regionals 1A - 1H.

Episode 41: It's That Time of Year Jan 25, 2021

Ben and Drew discuss recent invitational results in January including Ben's experience at Great Chicago Fire, why more West Coast teams are winning invitationals this year, what the case changes mean for Petrillo v. Martini & Peony Estates moving forward, and reactions to the 2021 Regionals assignments.

Episode 40: Fall Season Roundtable (with Kate Hayner-Slattery) Dec 04, 2020

For their third "roundtable" episode, Ben and Drew welcome Kate Hayner-Slattery of Northwestern Mock Trial. Ben, Drew and Kate discuss fall invitational results, case bias in Petrillo v. Martini/Peony Estates, and their general thoughts on the fall season and how our community is adapting to virtual Mock Trial.

Episode 39: The Fall 2020 Season (So Far) Nov 07, 2020

Now that we've got a few weeks of virtual Mock Trial behind us, Ben and Drew sit down to discuss everything we're seen from the Fall 2020 season so far. Ben and Drew break down the AMTA invitational results, discuss Drew's recent experience at Empire, talk about Ben releasing State v. Gardner (the Maryland High School Mock Trial 2020-21 case packet), and go through what they're seeing so far with online mock trial and how it works.

Episode 38: Petrillo v. Martini & Peony Estates (with Michael Gelfand) Sep 22, 2020

Civil Case Committee Chair and friend of the podcast Michael Gelfand joins Ben and Drew to discuss *Estate of Genesis Petrillo v. Harper Martini & Peony Estates*, the 2020-21 AMTA case packet. Mike covers what it has been like behind the scenes when the committee had to change topics on short notice, how the committee approached writing a packet they knew would be tried exclusively online, whether the committee was concerned about the complexity of a two-defendant case, and how the case committee approached building the stories and theories for this case.

Episode 37: Empire Mock Trial Sep 09, 2020

Drew and Ben are joined by Empire Mock Trial Executive Director Justin Matarrese and Director of Competition Operations Viran Weerasekera to discuss the history and mission of Empire Mock Trial, how Viran designed PROcess (the digital tabulation and tournament management system used by Empire), whether Empire would ever consider reviving The Downtown, and how their organization is adapting to the new challenges of online mock trial.

Episode 36: Five National Champions (with Team 36) Aug 25, 2020

Ben and Drew are joined on this episode by Team 36, the winning team at the inaugural One Last Time Tournament: Sonali Mehta and Georgia Lala of Duke, Steven Becker and Isabel Pentland of Tufts, and Elias Neibart of Emory. This episode is a wide-ranging discussion covering how their team came together, what it was like competing with people from other programs, thoughts on competing as attorneys and witnesses in virtual mock trial, how to use technology effectively, and what they'll remember about competing in AMTA.

Episode 35: One Last Time Tournament Preview (with Dan Peale) Aug 06, 2020

Drew and Ben are joined by Dan Peale of UVA Mock Trial for a discussion on his time at Virginia, the emotion of two consecutive second place finishes at NCT, his experience at Trial by Combat, and how he and his team are preparing for the first-ever One Last Time Tournament. Then Ben and Drew break down the OLT field and talk about some of the unique challenges they think competitors and teams will face in an online format.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Emergency Podcast: AMTA Postpones the 2020 National Championship Tournament Mar 12, 2020

Ben and Drew discuss AMTA's decision to postpone the remaining 2020 ORCS and the 2020 National Championship Tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Note: Ben recorded this episode remotely, so his audio quality is lower than normal.

Episode 24: Regionals Analysis, Weeks Three and Four Mar 11, 2020

Note: this episode was recorded last week, before the first weekend of ORCS results were released. On this episode, Ben and Drew analyze all of the remaining Regionals results, including the two west coast Regionals from week two, and all of the Regionals for weeks three and four.

Episode 23: Regionals Analysis, Weeks One and Two Feb 17, 2020

Ben and Drew break down the results of the first two weeks of Regionals, except for the west coast Regionals on week two. (Those results weren't out yet at the time we recorded this episode.)

Episode 22: Holiday Mailbag! Dec 24, 2019

Just in time for that holiday car ride, Ben and Drew answer listener questions submitted via email, Facebook, Twitter, and the new Impeachments forum. Topics include top teams and competitors on the circuit this year, how to transition from high school to college mock trial, how to build a program from the ground up, and several other issues. Then Ben and Drew break down the case changes and discuss the CRC Guidance Memo on invention of fact that was recently released by AMTA.

Episode 21: State of Midlands v. Jordan Ryder (with Neal Schuett) Nov 25, 2019

"I'm so sorry this happned [that we were gone for so long]" "It's all my fault [that we didn't upload sooner]" We promise we're not gone, we were just (missing). Thanks for following in Jordan Ryder's footsteps and never calling the police. Criminal Case Committee Neal Schuett joins Ben and Drew to talk State v. Ryder, his thoughts on winning a national championship both as a competitor at Iowa and a coach at Miami, and how hard it is to plan for crazy theories when writing a case where the defendant has no affidavit.

Episode 20: The 2019 National Final Round (with Iain Lampert) Sep 06, 2019

On the latest episode, Ben and Drew break down the 2019 National Final Round between Rhodes and Yale, where Yale was eventually stripped of their national title. Iain Lampert, two-time national champion at UCLA and 2019 final round judge joins the podcast to go through his analysis of what he observed during the round, how he scored each team, and how he thinks this impacts the AMTA community moving forward. Finally, Ben and Drew walk through each possible invention and give their perspective on what happened and whether the sanctions were fair and correct.

Episode 19: Two National Champions* Aug 21, 2019

While this year was a bit tougher to pull off a "Two National Champions" episode, Ben and Drew do their best. On the latest Mock Review episode, the hosts discuss Trial by Combat with the 2019 champion, Stephen Johnson. Ben and Drew are also joined by "member of the team who scored the most ballot points in the 2019 National Final", Adam Chase of Yale, to discuss his AMTA witness career, the aftermath of that controversial 2019 final, and his favorite rejected jokes that were left on the cutting room floor.

Episode 18: 2019 Board Meeting Rundown Aug 15, 2019

Ben and Drew discuss everything that happened at the 2019 American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Board of Directors meeting in Cincinatti, including a new pairing system for ORCS, several different proposals for changing our tournament structure, the new time limits for opening and closing statements, and the proposed rule to limit each program to one team at the National Championship Tournament.

Episode 17: 2019 Trial by Combat Preview Jun 20, 2019

On the latest episode, Ben and Drew chat again with Justin Bernstein about the 2019 Trial by Combat tournament hosted by Drexel Law and UCLA Law, and get an exclusive preview of the case before its release on Friday. Additionally, 2019 Trial by Combat competitor Jonathan Kuang (of UCLA Mock Trial) joins the podcast to talk about west coast mock, his disastrous first attempt at playing a witness, and why he's excited to compete at TBC.

Episode 16: Nationals Analysis, Part One (and ORCS Analysis, Week Two) Apr 14, 2019

On the newest episode, Drew and Ben dive into the results from the 35th AMTA National Championship, excluding the final round which will be the focus of another episode soon. Your hosts also look back at the season as a whole and briefly discuss the newly finalized 2019 Trial by Combat field. This episode also contains the ORCS Week Two analysis that was recorded before Nationals but was not released before Nationals because Ben was prepping his team to compete.

Episode 15: ORCS Analysis, Week One Mar 19, 2019

Editor's note: this episode was recorded before the second weekend of ORCS, but Ben didn't finish editing it until now because he was preparing his team for their own ORCS. He's very sorry. On this week's episode, Drew and Ben discuss the first set of results from 2019 Opening Round Championship Series tournaments and go through the implications of having only five Nationals bids from each ORCS.

Episode 14: Regionals Analysis, Week Three Mar 06, 2019

On the latest episode, Drew and Ben chat with Bruno Paes Leme and Gaby Pinzon of Florida International about earning ORCS bids in their first two years as a program. Ben and Drew also go through the eleven (!) Regionals in week three and discuss their own experience at the Owings Mills Regional, and then finish up by looking ahead to ORCS.

Episode 13: Regionals Analysis, Week Two Feb 22, 2019

On this week's episode, Ben and Drew look at the results from week two of Regionals, including the several new teams who advanced for the first time and numerous top-50 teams who didn't advance to ORCS. Ben and Drew also look forward to this weekend's Regionals and their own teams who are competing in Owings Mills.

Episode 12: Regionals Analysis, Week One Feb 15, 2019

On the newest episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew go Regional by Regional to discuss all the results from the first week of AMTA competition. Juniata College President Haley Walker joins the podcast to discuss her program's cinderella bid to ORCS out of State College, and Ben and Drew look forward to this coming weekend and another set of Regionals across the country.

Episode 11: Stanford Mock Trial (with Thom Scher and Jack Seigenthaler) Jan 22, 2019

Editor's note: this episode was recorded back in mid-December but took a few weeks to finish due to some editing challenges. On the latest episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew are joined by Thom Scher and Jack Seigenthaler of Stanford Mock Trial to break down the case changes, what's behind Stanford's recent rise to the top of AMTA, and whether the style differences in west coast mock are overhyped. Ben and Drew also discuss the end of the fall season and the results of the survey dealing with how to get more teams to host for AMTA.

Episode 10: Regional Tournament Assignments (with Adam Detsky) Dec 06, 2018

On the latest episode, Ben and Drew are joined by AMTA Team and Feeder Subcommittee Chair Adam Detsky. Adam breaks down the 2018 Regional Tournament assignments, and discusses how he and his committee go about placing 700+ teams into Regional sites around the country. Adam goes in-depth on the committee's process to try and make each Regional as fair as possible while also considering geography, Regional size and bid allocation, and making sure ORCS fields are even as well.

Episode 9: But It Actually Updates Nov 21, 2018

Content Warning: The first 12 minutes of this episode discuss the death of Alaina Housley and the issue of gun violence more broadly. The remaining portion of the episode begins at 12:02. On this week's episode, Ben and Drew discuss more fall tournament results, including the Black Squirrel Invitational, and respond to some questions regarding the 70% of teams that don't advance past Regionals, and what those teams can do to earn a bid to ORCS.

Episode 8: Early Season Review Nov 04, 2018

On the latest episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew take a closer look at some early-season results and how they might predict how the rest of the season will unfold. Ben and Drew also discuss what they've seen so far at different tournaments with how Midlands Television Studios v. Danny Kosack is playing out and propose some possibilities for case changes after the fall. All of this and much more on the newest episode of The Mock Review!

Episode 7: Elizabeth Bays Oct 09, 2018

On the latest episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew are joined over two sessions by Elizabeth Bays of Yale University. Elizabeth discusses Yale's four consecutive appearances in the National Final Round, their reputation for creative theories and whether they push the limits of AMTA rules, and Elizabeth's thoughts on how AMTA can improve transparency and communication with its membership.

Episode 6: Midlands Television Studios v. Kosack (with Michael Gelfand) Aug 23, 2018

On the first post-case release episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew chat with Civil Case Committee Chair Michael J. Gelfand about Midlands Television Studios, Inc. v. Danny Kosack. Mike (aka The Gelf) delves into why the committee decided to torture anxious college students with absurd case previews and then drop the case with no warning, how the core idea for this case came to fruition, what it was like working with nine different people on the Civil Case Committee, why the case has four swing witnesses, and a number of other topics.

Episode 5: Board Meeting Rundown Jul 30, 2018

On this week's episode, Ben and Drew cover the major decisions from the 2018 AMTA Board of Directors meeting in Las Vegas. We've got exclusive audio of AMTA President Will Warihay's introductory remarks at the meeting, and Ben and Drew walk through the discussion in the room on each of the major motions, including invention of fact, tournament structure, objections before openings/closings, raising the invitational license fee, and several others.

Episode 4: Invitationals and Tab Cards Jul 20, 2018

On the first full-length episode of The Mock Review to not feature a guest, Ben and Drew discuss invitational tournaments and flying blind at competition. Ben gets on his soapbox about being fair to newer programs, and Drew explains the risks of sending out a lot of early invites as an invitational host. Ben and Drew take opposite positions on looking at ballot results during tournaments, and agree to disagree on the merits of knowing your record during a tournament.

Episode 3: AMTA President Will Warihay Jul 13, 2018

Ben and Drew talk to Will Warihay, the current President of the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA), about a number of different topics related to the upcoming AMTA Board of Directors meeting. The discussion covers Will's background in mock trial, why he ran for President of AMTA, what he wants to focus on during his term, his thoughts on improper inventions and finding more AMTA tournament hosts, and many other issues.

Episode 2: Two National Champions Jun 29, 2018

On this extra-long episode of The Mock Review, Ben and Drew first talk to Dani Kunkel about winning the National Championship Tournament, almost dropping the trophy during an impromptu Stanley Cup-style celebration, and what's next for Dani. Next, Nick Ramos gives his thoughts on the judging in Minneapolis, breaks down his approach to Trial by Combat, and describes what it's really like to carry a full-sized sword on the streets of Philadelphia.

Episode 1: Trial by Combat Preview Jun 21, 2018

You want scoops? We've got scoops. Ben and Drew discuss Trial by Combat with Justin Bernstein, the mind behind the first collegiate-level individual championship, and he gives our listeners some exclusive details about the case packet before its release. We also talk with Eric Roytman, a two-time All-American Attorney from Ohio State University, about his preparation for Trial by Combat and his eclectic history as a witness.

Episode 0: Preview Jun 16, 2018

Ben and Drew introduce themselves, set out the plan for future episodes, and have a quick debate on the merits of challenge format pairings at invitational tournaments.

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