Opinion: Our politics needs more Coffee Show Hosts.

For the past year, I've run a 'coffee show'. What started as my childhood best friend and me recording our silly arguments, turned into a routine and irreplaceable part of my life in which friends and friends of friends talk with me over a cup of coffee in my car. A one-minute clip of our conversation is later posted for the rest of the world to see.

I was very fortunate to spend time with Burbank City Councilmember Konstantine Anthony a few weeks ago. A former Mayor, he became the first openly autistic Mayor of a major city in United States History. And before sitting on the dais, he was a full-time improv comedian.

To do improv, you need to know a lot of things about a lot of things, Councilmember Anthony shared with me. Improv requires developing quick, nuanced responses to concepts that may be unheard of. He articulated to me that with so many different issues coming before the City Council - from renters' rights, to zoning laws, city parks and recreation spaces, traffic policy, and environmental quality - today's elected officials need to know 'a lot of things about a lot of things.'

So does that mean we need more improv comedians in public office? I asked.

He smiled, I've been saying that for a long time now.

The Councilmember's statement may have merit. I know another niche group of people whose perspective could be valued in the halls of power: Coffee Show Hosts.

The model of my Instagram series "Coffee with Raphi" is fairly simple. Folks who want a spot on the show reach out to me, a group of my friends who graciously volunteer as Executive Producers add them to my calendar, and we meet up for coffee or boba tea. Our conversation then gets moved to my car, where we prop the camera up and record ourselves talking in short, one minute-long snippets. I end up publishing the most substantive clip. Some coffee episodes only lasted a total of fifteen minutes. Most go on for forty-five. In my longest, and most emotional one, my two guests Brady and Cohl lost track of time with me. We spoke for a total of two-and-a-half hours.

It goes without saying, I've learned 'a lot of things about a lot of things' hosting Coffee with Raphi. But most importantly, I have been taught a valuable lesson through it all. A lesson best articulated by Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird:

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Take the example of Reese, whose first appearance on Coffee with Raphi was marked by explaining how she makes a Google slide at the end of every month to summarize the major events of her life. I have long admired her composure through tumultuous times. She shared how this tool helped her visualize her own progress and brace for what can't be controlled.

Or, a group many people may have never expected to be sitting together in a car with me: Chris, James, Ben and his twin brother Joey. We spent our last day of high school on the coffee show numerically rating the four-year experience. The variability in their numbers opened my eyes to the fact that even the most similar individuals handle challenges much differently - and that's all okay!

My former classmate Matt opened up to me about how certain rumors in the past had affected him, next to his friends Jackson and Tyler. Matt had been a 'campus celebrity' throughout high school, and while largely reserved in his reactions to others' attitudes toward him, it was surprising to learn how they had been internalized.

My friend Nancy enlisted in the United States Army a couple months after her episode. She shared her excitement and also her newfound surprise in what is demanded of combat medics.

Gracie, someone I had seen in the hallways but never knew her name turned someone I was nominated to the Prom Court with, came on the show to talk about her relationship with her parents - a relationship that was neither friendly nor bitter, but when compared to her closest friends' relationships with their parents, could be characterized as distant.

My former Chief of Staff at Young Leaders PAC turned best friend Jake is a regular on the show, and along with his younger brother Drew, has taught me so much. He believes he has a claim to the title first Coffee with Raphi guest since his crash course explanation of the national debt ceiling was the first clip to go viral - setting the foundation for the show we know today.

Paige and Julianna (known more affectionately as Juju), both go to the same university as me and both hail from Los Angeles County. They came on my show separately to talk about their expectations for GW and how eager they were to enter college before making our move to the nation's capital. We hadn't known each other at all beforehand, so I say the coffee show gifted me two built-in friends before orientation.

And don't let me forget Kate and her partner Dean. During the first three years of high school, let's just say Kate and I did not get along. That's the understatement. As for Dean, I’d never met him. They both joined me on a coffee episode to talk about their vastly different college experiences - Kate in San Diego and Dean in Salt Lake City. (Kate and I have since entered a new chapter of friendship. She and Dean have since both become my closest allies).

You might think this is great and all, but what does it have to do with public service? Two things: relationships and perspectives.

For starters, running a coffee show builds relationships. The vast majority of my guests made their debut on my show as strangers and have since become some of my best friends. Reese has since introduced me to her college roommates. I've become pen pals with Nancy as she serves our country in the military. Gracie and I have the occasional catch-up dinner. Juju comes into my dorm room often for our regular 'debriefs.' And when I was tasked with teaching a course on how to use LinkedIn for one of my college groups, I called up Matt and asked him if I could use his page as the model.

I've heard far too often (especially from folks on Capitol Hill) that much like business, politics is relational. And not merely relational in that more friends equals more people you can call up for donations and endorsements, even though that might be true. Even more so, politics is relational in the same way building trust is relational. We expect our elected officials to be trustworthy. To accept their responsibilities in honor. To form coalitions that will serve their constituents' interests. To be accountable to the people. And in order to justify this trust, they ought to build relationships.

Secondly, running a coffee show builds perspective.? In my own experiences in public service, I've thought about the coffee show guests a lot more than one might expect. Hosting a coffee show exposed me to stories that have informed my own beliefs.

Stories from guests whose parents are educators, first responders, healthcare workers, aerospace engineers.

Stories from guests who went bungee jumping in Switzerland, or whose sister did a year abroad in Cambodia.

Stories from guests who have had to drop out because they cannot afford to finish their last year of college, or whose cousins are drowning in medical debt.

Stories from a guest whose grandparents don't vote because they carry trauma, having immigrated from a country where they could get thrown in prison for casting the 'wrong vote.' Stories from a guest who entered college expecting to have no friends because her high school contemporaries made her believe she wasn't worthy of them.

Stories from a guest who left a lucrative career in institutional banking to plan funerals full-time, or a non-profit executive expanding access to martial arts education. Stories from a local zoning commissioner who escaped poverty and ended up becoming Vice President of a Fortune 500 company.

Stories from a young guest whose father died of cancer weeks before coming on the show.

I think about these experiences as if they were my own. Whether I'm watching C-SPAN, or a school board meeting. Whether I'm hopping on a Zoom call with the League of Minority Voters, or speaking with a Member of Congress outside the Capitol steps. Before I cast my first-ever vote in the mail, I kept all these guests' lived experiences in my thoughts.

I really wish some Senators, Governors, Members of Congress, and Mayors could be in the car with me while I listened to some of these stories. Crafting good public policy demands understanding the people you serve. And as Atticus told Scout, that requires climbing into one's skin and walking through it.

There's a song by the Jonas Brothers called 'Waffle House.' The backstory behind the song is quite interesting. Three famous, and famously over-competitive brothers Kevin, Joe, and Nick grew up having dinner at the same restaurant after each of their shows. The chorus continues to move me.

No, don't get stressed, it's gon' get figured out. Deep conversation at the Waffle House … Some nights we tried to kill each other, but you know it's always love.

I think about Coffee with Raphi whenever this song is played. I'm blessed beyond belief that over a hundred people have trusted me to come on my coffee show. Some were longtime companions, others newly-made friends, some sitting elected officials, and even my former English teacher.

Many of my guests shared some deeply personal experiences while the camera was rolling. Some guests came on the show knowing full well that someone they didn't like was scheduled to be featured the next day. All of them obviously had better things to do than to answer my silly questions from the passenger seat of a Toyota Tacoma.

I'm not ready to be a Mayor, or Senator, or Member of Congress just yet. I’m just saying the honorable folks who occupy these offices ought to do more of what I call 'coffee show hosting.' And it doesn't necessarily mean hosting a video podcast in their cars. It simply requires broadening perspective, and building relationships.