Fight Club and Freemasonry: A Conversation with WB Dago Rodriguez
with WB Dago Rodriguez
Dago has been with the Southern California Research Lodge since 2015, first as managing editor and, since the magazine's 2016 rebrand, as creative director of Fraternal Review. What started as black and white photocopies folded and mailed out became a full color monthly periodical, one of the only Masonic publications still hitting eleven issues a year. Dago describes it as a bridge into Masonic education rather than a heavy research journal, and the conversation traces its growth from that first test issue through today's rotating slate of guest editors.
Troy sits down with WB Dago Rodriguez, PM, 32°, creative director of Fraternal Review and two-time past master of South Pasadena Masonic Lodge No. 290, for a wide-ranging first meeting that covers the magazine's origin story, the surprising philosophical overlap between Fight Club and the Masonic path, and what keeps a lodge alive across generations.
Dago has been with the Southern California Research Lodge since 2015, first as managing editor and, since the magazine's 2016 rebrand, as creative director of Fraternal Review. What started as black and white photocopies folded and mailed out became a full color monthly periodical, one of the only Masonic publications still hitting eleven issues a year. Dago describes it as a bridge into Masonic education rather than a heavy research journal, and the conversation traces its growth from that first test issue through today's rotating slate of guest editors.
The centerpiece of the conversation is Dago's talk Fight Club and Freemasonry, born out of a MasonicCon pop culture panel and now headed to the Esotericism in Freemasonry Conference 2026 on September 19th at the Ballard Masonic Center in Seattle. Troy and Dago dig into the talk's real subject, masculinity, role models, and the difference between building and destroying, then connect it to broader threads on Observant Masonry, generational unity, and why a lodge that stops evolving stops existing.
Tickets for EFC 2026 are available at esotericmasonry.com.
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Lost Keys of Freemasonry by Manly P. Hall
Freemasonry For Dummies by Christopher Hodapp
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
Join or Die, the 2023 documentary built around Putnam's research