THE COFFEE HOUSE is a monthly, hour-long, cable and satellite TV magazine of public affairs and the arts produced just outside of Washington, DC.

I conceived theshow in 1996 as a hobby; I was a lawyer and legal editor at the time. Nearly two decades before that, I'd been a local public radio news director and also had a couple years of basic TV production experience. I missed the action: The energy and impact of broadcast jazzed me and I was happy to find a way to have this back in my life.

The initial idea behind the show was to showcase the remarkable artistic and musical talents, and innovative, progressive thinkers in my hometown, bohemian Takoma Park, Maryland, population 18,000. In its first year, the show was produced with the City of Takoma Park's (then) antiquated equipment and was telecast on only one local channel.

We soon moved the production of the show to Montgomery Community Television (a/k/a Access Montgomery), a full-service TV studio nearby in the region, and we've produced the show there ever since. And over the years, THE COFFEE HOUSE has grown and changed. Today, it is telecast nationally on satellite and on local channels in 19 states in the US. The show features politics and dance, the environment and poetry, labor and roots music, the justice system and visual arts. And more.

Each segment has its own host. Liz Lerman is the founder of the Dance Exchange and an internationally renowned choreographer. Jamie Raskin is a noted legal scholar and a state senator in Maryland. Reuben Jackson, a curator at the heralded Smithsonian museum, offers literary reviews. Angela J. Davis is a law professor and focuses on issues related to criminal justice. David Eisner runs a shop and a society for traditional music and hosts our roots music segment. Cathy Kristiansen, a medical editor, does consumer health interviews. Mike Tidwell is a noted travel author and climate change authority and hosts an environmental segment. Fred Feinstein formerly served as the chief labor law prosecutor in the US and hosts a segment on workplace rights. And Howard Kohn, former national editor of Rolling Stone magazine and a Pulitzer finalist, hosts a segment about journalism. We also do field produced features and regularly feature poetry.

By day, I'm the executive director of the Government Accountability Project, the leading advocate for whistleblowers in the US. In my off-work hours, I produce THE COFFEE HOUSE and do he show's public affairs interviews. The show's mix is unique in American TV… and so too is the fact that no one has ever been paid for their work on the show. Not the on-air hosts, not the guests, not the production crew. Not me. It's all been done by volunteers, which prompted a syndicated Canadian TV show to comment that “The results should shame some high-priced, big-talent national programs."

THE COFFEE HOUSE has won a double-digit number of awards for its public affairs and arts programming and hosting talent. While the show continues to reflect our local regional character and counter-cultural roots, its national and global expansion have, of course, led us to broaden our perspective. We really do think global and act local. We invite you to tune in and let us know what you think.

Mark Cohen