Welcome to the latest installment of The Kitchen Table podcast's 'Self-Help Series'. In this episode Justin White is joined by Lieutenant Kent Smith who talks about his journey through addiction to recovery. Kent’s story is raw and full of emotion as he recounts the toll addiction took not only on his life, but his family members as well. 

So come join us at the Kitchen Table as we continue to destigmatize those things that challenge us in life while letting people know that help is there if they need it.

This conversation at the Kitchen Table – Quick Hit discusses the search size up.  The last QH we discussed the overall size up from a command perspective and now we will start to narrow our focus to some of the tasks we perform on the fire ground starting with arguably the most important task we perform, search.  Justin White is joined by Lieutenant Josh Talbot and Driver Kevin Farraher to provide insight on the thought process surrounding the search size up and how it should be performed.

So come join us at the Kitchen Table.  Sit down, enjoy, and be ready to learn a little bit about Search Size Ups.

The NIOSH multi-year firefighter cancer study identified that fire fighters have a 9% greater chance of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% greater chance of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population.

At the 2022 IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial, almost 75% of the names added to the wall (348 out of 469) were members who had died from occupational cancer.  Overall, the IAFF reports that cancer caused 66 percent of the career firefighter line-of-duty deaths from 2002 to 2019.

If these statistics don’t get your attention…they should.

This episode Justin White sits down with retired Driver Engineer Dan Knox as he humbly describes his journey with cancer from diagnosis to treatment to recovery to retirement. Driver Engineer Knox also discusses how his actions (or inaction) may have contributed to his diagnosis and what you should do to decrease your risk of being diagnosed as well.

So come and join Justin, Chris Weaver, Grant Tinker and the 14th nicest guy on the job Dan Knox for a deep and honest discussion of his relationship with cancer at the Kitchen Table.  As always, sit down, enjoy, and be ready to learn about cancer, how it could impact your life, and more importantly what you can do about it.

All the resources discussed in this episode can be found attached to the activity in Target Solutions.

Welcome to the latest installment of The Kitchen Table podcast's 'Self-Help Series'. This episode features our own Captain Juliet Draper and 'Her Majesty' Pam as they share personal stories of addiction, recovery, and resilience. Training Chief Justin White hosts the Drapers for 90 minutes of thought-provoking, heartfelt conversation focused on self-care and destigmatizing a problem impacting our peers. 

This episode is an experiment with something different.  It’s called the “Quick Hits” series.  These will be short conversations about a specific topic and will last no longer than 20 minutes.  Let us know what you think.

This episode Justin White sits down with Lieutenant Brian Lynch to discuss the value of 360 Size Ups.  They get into what there're for, why we do them, and how they should be completed.  This is truly one of the most valuable actions that must be taken on each and every structure fire.

So come join us at the Kitchen Table.  Sit down, enjoy, and be ready to learn a little bit about 360 Size Ups.

Leader of Character (S3, E1) - There are plenty of leadership speakers and authors available who tell all who will listen what they need to be a great leader.  Often times, however, these leadership guru’s don’t provide their students the things they need to do to practice the skills needed to be that effective leader.  In this episode we talk with author Dave Anderson who has written a book that not only describes the traits needed by great leaders, but also provides direction on how to create, exercise, and nurture those traits.  Mr. Anderson wrote his book Becoming a Leader of Character with his father, General James Anderson.  Both are graduates of the Military Academy at West Point.  General Anderson spent 41 years leading members of the US Army, while Dave took a different path after serving eight years in the Army.  Dave left the Army to lead teams in the private sector in a Fortune 50 company.  With a good blend of military and civilian experience Dave and his father provide a practical approach to leadership that can help even experienced leaders become more effective.

Sit down, enjoy, and be ready to learn a little about leadership and how to practice becoming a leader of character; one that is a respected and effective member of the team.    

Sometimes life throws us curveballs…Sometime we reach our goals and fulfill our dreams just to have them ripped away by unfortunate circumstances.  At that time we have we have two choices: give up, back down and become miserable or Ruck On finding new ways to live happy, healthy, and successful lives.

In this episode we talk to former Army Officer Joe Kramer.  Joe grew up dreaming of following in his father’s footsteps from attending the Military Academy at West Point into a long career in the Special Forces.  Unfortunately, Joe received significant hearing damage during his Army career and had to be medically discharged effectively ending his lifelong dream.  From there Joe realized that he had along time left to live and a lot to live for with a young family which needed to be provided for.  Joe found another career in the medical sales industry and is now using the leadership skills taught to him by the Army to create successful teams in private industry.

Come sit down at the Kitchen Table and have a listen, be ready to learn, and discover how one man turned bad luck into a valuable life lesson we can all learn from.

Music:

Doozey – Instrumental Version by Oliver Dodge

Ace High by Nick Poss

Bluerock by Cayson Renshaw

As always, this music can be found on artlist.io as well as all major music streaming platforms and youtube.com.