Approach the Bench

In our first-ever live taping, Mason and Will sit down with Judge Josh Divine of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri. He talks about his path from Missouri Solicitor General and a clerkship with Justice Thomas to the bench, where originalism goes from here, and what the next generation of lawyers should be ready for. He also takes a turn on Girl Problems, ruli...

Will heads out to the Badlands for this one — to Medora, North Dakota, where the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened its doors on July 4, 2026, America's 250th birthday. He's joined by historian Matt Briney to walk through the newest presidential library in the country and the man it was built for. They start with the library itself: why it sits in a town of about 160 people, ho...

Most Christian guys won't say this out loud. Mason and Will get honest about where their faith actually feels hard. Mason admits he keeps treating grace like a scorecard, quietly measuring his standing with God by how well he's performing, even though he knows better. Will talks about running into a wall with friends who are "spiritual but not religious" or think every path leads...

Mason just got back from the ARC conference in London, where he spent a week at a summit about rebuilding Western civilization and came home mostly annoyed about the plumbing. Will just walked 500 miles across northern Spain on the Camino — the Norte and the Primitivo — through villages with no children in them. So we asked the question everyone on the American right has already answered: has Euro...

We sat down to give some practical advice to our fellow men on this SPECIAL episode of Approach the Bench. If you’ve ever wondered, how should I ask a girl out? Is a girl worth it? When do I know?? Well, well, well, you’ve come to the right place. Two Harvard Bachelors are here to help. And Mason and Will certainly won’t give bad advice here…Email approachthebenchquestions@gmail.com with your ques...

Every few months someone declares that the Baby Boomers ruined America — and every few months someone else points out that most Boomers never sat in Congress, never got rich, and lived through Vietnam, stagflation, and 15% mortgages. So which is it? This week on Approach the Bench, Mason and Will put the question on trial: did the Boomers inherit an unusually prosperous America and preserve it — o...

What does it actually mean to call yourself a feminist in 2026?In this 45-minute, single-shot sit-down on a couch (no bench to be found!)), the three of us - as conservative Christians - have the honest conversation most people avoid. And we recorded it. We trace feminism through all four waves and then ask the question that matters most: Would you - and should you - call yourself a feminist as a...

Hinge, Bumble, Tinder --- they're supposed to help you find a partner. Right? On this segment from Ep. 21 of Approach the Bench, Harvard Business School student Luis Penichet explains how dating apps are designed to keep you single. He also shares his idea for a dating app startup that isn't. Email approachthebenchquestions@gmail.com with your questions/comments or submit a voice memo at h...

WEEK 43 The Socialists Are Winning. What Do They Actually Want? We're in a fine Utah hotel for this one, and there's no guest — just the two of us and a stack of DSA's own documents. Zohran Mamdani is the mayor of New York. National DSA called it the biggest socialist electoral win in this country in a century, and 2026 kept the streak going: Chris Rabb in Philadelphia, a citywide brea...

We sat down with Brian Rath and debated who the best and worst American Presidents are. This was a surprising debate, full of all sorts of twists and turns. Let us know what you thought of it in the comments! And for the rest of the show, look for episode 20!Email approachthebenchquestions@gmail.com with your questions/comments or submit a voice memo at https://www.speakpipe.com/approachthebench f...

WEEK 42: We Took an Eyewitness Back to Where Charlie Kirk Was Killed We're not on a bench this week. We're on a courtyard at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, standing roughly where three thousand people were standing on September 10, 2025. Our guest is Jeb Jacobi, who was in that crowd. We asked him to walk us through the whole thing — where he was, what he saw, what he thought was ha...

WEEK 41: Our Testimonies We're on a bench in Arlington, Virginia for this one — and we're doing something we've never done in 40 episodes. No guest, no topic, no rapid-fire round. Just the two of us telling our stories in full. How we each came to faith, what we believed before, the parts that were slow and unglamorous, and the moments that actually turned. This is the background to ev...

WEEK 40: What Happens When AI Replaces Us? We're filming this one on a rooftop overlooking the U.S. Capitol — which felt right, because this episode is about who's still going to have a job when the dust settles. Joining us is Jack Kieffaber, who's spent real time thinking about where AI is actually headed, not just where the headlines say it's headed. We open with the state of pla...

WEEK 39: Feminism (with Hannah, Concerned Women for America) We sit down with Hannah, who works for Concerned Women for America — the largest conservative Christian women's policy organization in the country — to take on a question that splits both the culture and the church: should you call yourself a feminist? We open with the number that frames the whole episode: 61% of American women agree wit...

WEEK 38: What Makes America Great — w/ Rear Admiral Putnam Browne We recorded this one at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, DC, in front of the flag-raising — because if you're going to ask whether America is actually great, you should have to answer it standing somewhere that raises the stakes. And we brought backup. Rear Admiral Putnam Browne has done things only Americans can do: over 45...

Congratulations, you've stumbled across a treasure trove of men's fashion wisdom. Consider this your lucky day. WEEK 37: The DEFINITIVE Guide to Men's Fashion. This is a semi-serious, fully opinionated breakdown of what a man should actually wear — and why. We start with the one principle that runs underneath everything: fit beats brand beats price. A $40 shirt that fits will always be...

WEEK 35: We Asked a Dominican Priest How to Date (ft. Father Max, O.P.) We're at a resort with a guest who brings the theology heavy: Father Max, a Dominican priest of the Order of Preachers — the order of Aquinas himself. We start with the man behind the collar: what the Dominican Order actually is, how he discerned a vocation to the priesthood, what celibacy looks like from the inside, and w...

WEEK 35: Something Is Happening to Gen Z | The Campus Revival w/ Josh Moran We're coming to you from Lansdowne, Virginia — outside, golden hour, with a guest whose story we've been wanting to tell for a while. Josh Moran played football for the Georgia Bulldogs. Then he went to law school. Now he's helping lead one of the most remarkable stories in America that almost nobody in the mai...

WEEK 34: DC Summer Is Miserable. We Wouldn't Be Anywhere Else. We're coming to you live from a bench in Washington, DC — and before we get into the summer episode, we have some unfinished business. A New York City influencer said something about DC that we can't let slide. We respond. Briefly. But firmly. Then: the DC Summer Episode. We recorded this one outside, in the heat, surrounde...

WEEK 33: Harvard Business School Has a Morality Problem This week, we're joined by Edward Doan — Harvard Business School student and devout Catholic. And we're once again at Harvard Divinity School, just this time, we're discussing the morally questionable nature of some of HBS's recent activities. Here's what happened: HBS's startup competition — one of the most prestigiou...

WEEK 32: Are Protestants Going to Heaven? Welcome to Harvard Divinity School. This week, we sit down with Edward Doan to take on one of the oldest and most consequential questions in Western Christianity: can Protestants be saved? We start by refusing to treat this as one question when it's really three. Soteriology — can non-Catholics be saved? Ecclesiology — what actually constitutes the Chu...

WEEK 31: Are Men Useless? (REUPLOAD) Welcome to Harvard Stadium. This week, we bring in Daniel Nivens and take on one of the most charged questions in modern culture: are men actually useless? We walk through Olivia Barbulescu's viral Substack piece/IG post arguing that men are no longer needed — only wanted — and that they're struggling to adapt to the difference. We engage the comment se...

WEEK 31: Inside the Life of a Harvard Law Professor. Welcome to Newton, MA. This week, we sit down with Professor Jesse Fried — William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, author of Pay Without Performance, expert witness in major corporate litigation, and a man who has been associated with this institution in some form for nearly four decades. Then we get into the main event:...

WEEK 30: Are Mormons Christians? (Outside an LDS Church) This week, we take the conversation outside—literally. Filmed in front of an LDS church in Cambridge, we sit down with John Warnock for one of the most important questions in modern Christianity: are Mormons Christians? We start with a simple goal: clarity, not cheap shots. This isn’t just a “debate”—it’s a serious attempt to understand wher...

WEEK 29: Sarah Isgur on the War Fracturing the Legal Right Welcome back to Approach the Bench. This week we sit down with Sarah Isgur — SCOTUSblog editor, Advisory Opinions co-host, ABC News legal analyst, and author of Last Branch Standing . Before all of that: Harvard Law '08, Federalist Society president, veteran of three presidential campaigns, DOJ spokesperson during the Mueller investigation...