In this episode of In the Waiting Room, Rashad Edwards sits down with Amazon Prime’s Fallout actor and Columbia University acting instructor Rafi Silver for a wide-ranging conversation about judgment, discernment, and the inner life of the working artist.

The episode opens with a reflection on filmmaker Ryan Coogler’s decision to decline membership in the Academy—not out of protest, but out of a deep discomfort with judging the value of other people’s work. That choice becomes a lens for the larger conversation: whether neutrality is possible, or even honest, in art, belief, and life.

Rafi and Rashad explore the tension between subjectivity and moral clarity, drawing from their differing spiritual frameworks—Buddhism and Christianity—while finding common ground around responsibility, intention, and humility. They unpack how actors are often forced to justify their worth through credits, visibility, and external validation, and how that pressure can quietly erode purpose.

The conversation moves through theater versus film economics, family trade-offs, teaching and mentorship, spiritual practice, identity, trauma, and the danger of hiding behind performance—onstage and off. At its core, the episode argues that discernment is unavoidable: in the roles we take, the values we hold, and the way we show up for others.

This is a conversation about choosing honesty over illusion, practice over posturing, and presence over praise—especially in an industry built on smoke, mirrors, and judgment.