Sam Pullan explains how a chance encounter has helped him to improve his introduction to the modern themes and founding documents of US politics. Working with a professional historian whom he met, by chance, over dinner, he was able to produce lessons at the cutting edge of subject knowledge to grab the attention of his Year 11 pupils. This article describes this process, offers a rationale and suggests means for others to do the same. Like his lessons, the article is written in collaboration with his dining companion, Adam I.P. Smith, who shows that the professional dialogue between academic and teacher was a two-way process of benefit to both.