"The Kitchen Table" Presented by TPI Canada

Hosted by Gregg Cochlan & Ron Medved

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126

Latest episode

Apr 2026

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EN-US

About the show

The Kitchen Table purpose is to share with you an engaging dialogue that we hope will reveal the dynamic world of cognitive science and it’s role it plays in performance. For over four decade your co-host Ron Medved and Gregg Cochlan have work with hundreds of organizations to apply cognitive psychology, science and practices to ignite human and organizational performance.

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April 6, 202658 min

#122 Knowledge in the Service of Wisdom

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentOne of the key insights emerging from the Wisdom Project is that wisdom is not the same as accumulating information. When people think of a wise person, they often imagine someone who knows a great deal, and knowledge is certainly part of wisdom. But our exploration suggests that knowledge is only one component, and it is always incomplete.We are rarely, if ever, able to know with total certainty what is really going on. Because of that, wisdom is not about having perfect knowledge. It is about doing our best to gather, assess, and apply information in a way that leads to a response that creates benefit.In the Wisdom Project, knowledge is best understood as being in the service of a wise response. We gather information from diverse sources, weigh it carefully, interpret it through our own experience, and filter it through the maturity construct. The goal is not simply to know more, but to respond more wisely.Two Broad Categories of InformationOur discussion suggests that information generally comes from two broad kinds of sources: traditional and non-traditional.Traditional sources include science, research, education, journalism, and other forms of observable or repeatable evidence.Non-traditional sources include intuition, spiritual insight, collective consciousness, and felt knowing.Both can influence how people come to understand the world, but both require discernment.Information Quality Also MattersNot all information is equally trustworthy. Some information is reliable — evidence-based, consistent, verifiable, and coherent. Other information is unreliable — biased, incomplete, emotionally distorted, or shaped by misinformation and disinformation.This means wisdom is not just about finding information. It is about evaluating the source, judging the quality, and using that knowledge in ways that are thoughtful, grounded, and beneficial This means the challenge is not just to collect information, but to discern the kind of information we are receiving, evaluate its quality, and determine how it should be used.

March 16, 202659 min

#121 -Lesson Learned Through Suffering

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentToday’s conversation is a tender one.Ron is going to generously share his experience of losing his 94-year-old mother-in-law. Loss like that carries real grief. Real weight. Real suffering.What stands out in this story isn’t an attempt to avoid the pain — it’s the way Ron gently creates space inside it. A pause between the shock of loss and the way he chooses to respond. Not denying the grief. Not rushing past it. But walking through it thoughtfully — and helping Kelly do the same.We’ve talked before about how suffering can be triggered in many ways — uncertainty, fear, change. But sometimes the stimulus is simply love and loss. And in those moments, the question becomes: how do we respond?Today we explore that space — the quiet pause where suffering is real, but wisdom can still guide the response

March 3, 202626 min

#120 “Uncertainty in Mexico: Choosing Response Over Reaction

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentOn February 22, while we were in Mexico at our place in La Penita my son-in-law Josh and I were having breakfast at a local restaurant when social media began reporting violence in our region following the killing of a major cartel leader in Jalisco. In a matter of minutes, uncertainty entered the room. The headlines were dramatic. The proximity felt real. And like any powerful stimulus, it had the potential to escalate quickly inside us.What became clear in that moment was this: the Wisdom Project isn’t theoretical — it’s practical. We created a pause between stimulus and response. We noticed the movement along the Experience Slider — from cognitive fact-finding to emotional reaction. And we located ourselves on the Concern Continuum, aware of how easily healthy concern can drift toward worry or anxiety when uncertainty goes unmanaged.This episode isn’t about cartel politics. It’s about what happens inside us when uncertainty feels close to home — and how having the tools of pause, awareness, and calibration allows us to regulate our response, minimize anxiety, and reduce unnecessary suffering in real time.

March 3, 202627 min

#119 Sliding Toward Wisdom

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentIn today’s episode, we introduce what we’re calling the experience slider. Every experience is a stimulus. From there, our response tends to slide in one of two directions — toward cognitive reaction (thinking, analyzing, interpreting) or toward emotional reaction (feeling, sensing, reacting from the heart or gut). Neither side is wrong, but where we land shapes what happens next.Layered onto that is what we call the concern continuum — a mental-state progression that helps us understand how our internal reaction can escalate.Concern is the healthy starting point. It’s awareness with proportion. Something matters, and we’re attentive, but we remain steady and capable of thoughtful response.Worry emerges when concern loops. The mind revisits the issue repeatedly, often imagining outcomes. Worry narrows our focus and can begin to crowd out perspective.Anxiety is worry amplified. The body joins the mind. There is tension, urgency, a felt sense of threat or loss of control. The emotional slider has moved further to the right.Panic is the far end of the continuum — when regulation drops significantly and the nervous system overrides reflection. Thinking becomes difficult, and reaction dominates.In this conversation, we explore how the experience slider and the concern continuum interact — and how the intentional pause between stimulus and response allows us to notice where we are, regain balance, and slide back toward wisdom

January 21, 202652 min

#118 Suffering Through the Wisdom Loop

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentIn this episode, we’re taking a pause—a moment to check in, reflect, and go a little deeper into the questions that have surfaced during our exploration of uncertainty, anxiety, and suffering in Wisdom Study 2.0.But this time, the spotlight gently shifts to the circular nature of wisdom itself. Dave brings forward a few powerful questions about how wisdom doesn’t just move us forward—it often invites us back, full circle, to reflect on how we’ve changed and what we now see with clearer eyes.At the heart of this episode is Ron Medved—our friend, guide, and longtime companion in this work—whose personal practice of consciously engaging with the Creator or Source has shaped how he navigates the afternoon of life. Now in his 80s, Ron shares how his responses to life’s challenges have evolved from the striving of his 40s into something calmer, deeper, and—dare we say—wiser.His story is not just inspiring—it’s instructive. It shows what it means to live the wisdom formula, not just talk about it.So whether you’re new to this conversation or have been with us since the beginning, we invite you to listen in, reflect, and consider how your own relationship with uncertainty, anxiety, and wisdom has shifted over time.

January 2, 20261 hr 3 min

#117 Suffering a Pathway to Wisdom

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentAs we head into our 10th season, we’re continually humbled by how far this conversation has traveled. We’ve had listeners tuning in from more than 120 countries around the world, and that global community means a great deal to us. From time to time, we’ve invited feedback, comments, questions, and curiosities—and we want you to know that invitation is always open. If you’re willing, we’d love for you to click on the comments and share a thought or a wonder. We’ll keep everything private, and we promise we won’t respond directly. Your reflections simply help shape the ongoing conversationIn this podcast, we continue our ongoing exploration of the relationship between uncertainty, anxiety, and suffering, turning our attention more deliberately toward suffering itself—how it arises, how we interpret it, and how it can become a catalyst for wisdom rather than a source of ongoing distress.We begin by revisiting the anxiety continuum, moving from concern to worry, anxiety, and ultimately panic. Using several real-life stories, we examine how suffering shows up differently at each point along this continuum—not only as an emotional experience, but as a story we tell ourselves about what is happening and what it means.In this episode, suffering becomes the central focus. Rather than treating suffering as something to eliminate or avoid, we explore how different wisdom traditions understand suffering as an inevitable part of the human condition—and, when approached wisely, a profound teacher.To ground this exploration, we draw insight from five influential wisdom voices and traditions, including the Buddha, the Stoics, and depth psychologist Carl Jung. Each offers a unique perspective on how humans relate to pain, uncertainty, and meaning.A key part of the conversation centers on Jung’s description of the stages of life—particularly his distinction between the morning, noon, and afternoon of life. We explore how much of our early life is driven by achievement, control, and certainty, and how the “noon” of life often brings heightened anxiety when those strategies stop working. Jung’s afternoon of life, however, invites a different posture: one marked by integration, acceptance, and a deeper capacity to hold suffering without being defined by itEpisode 117 invites listeners not to bypass suffering, but to slow down, examine the stories they are telling, and consider how suffering—held with awareness and compassion—may be shaping them toward greater wisdom.

December 18, 202525 min

#116 An Anxiety “Work out” in the Dojo”

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentIn this podcast Gregg, Ron, and Dave continue their exploration of the relationship between uncertainty, anxiety, and suffering — but this time through the lens of practice. Drawing on the idea of a wisdom dojo, they look at how anxiety isn’t just something to understand, but something to train with. Just like a martial artist builds strength and skill through repeated drills, we can build a stronger pause — that space between stimulus and response — by doing small, deliberate “workouts” that help us recognize uncertainty, soften anxiety, and reduce suffering before it hijacks our judgment. This episode invites listeners into the dojo with us: to reflect, to practice, and to develop the inner strength required for wiser decisions in everyday life

December 6, 202522 min

Podcast #115 Ok, Now it Gets Challenging

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentOver the last several podcasts, we’ve been deepening our work on what we’re calling Wisdom Study 2.0, an extension of our Wisdom Project. The driving question behind this phase of our study has been simple, but profound: how can we apply wisdom in ways that actually mitigate the psychological and emotional impacts of uncertainty—especially the anxiety that so often leads to personal and collective suffering?In our last episode, we shared a couple of stories—from illness to travel to politics—that illustrated just how disorienting uncertainty can be, and how easily it can pull us into anxiety or reactive judgment.Today, we want to build on that. We’re going to explore the significant challenge uncertainty presents in our daily lives—how it shapes our decisions, how it influences our well-being, and how it affects the people we care about. And, as always, we’ll be asking the practical question: What can we do about it?

November 21, 202535 min

Podcast #114- "The Gift” a Cabin Pause

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentIn this episode, I want to share a bit of personal background that shaped today’s conversation. Earlier in 2024, my grandson Peter was diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, a condition I’ve spoken about in earlier Kitchen Table podcasts. Through the spring, our family’s anxiety deepened when we learned that Peter also had spots on his kidneys, which were later confirmed to be carcinoma.So, while our Wisdom Project continues to explore the relationship between uncertainty, anxiety, and suffering, this chapter became very personal. We were witnessing those three forces up close — in real time — and learning how they intertwine.Then something beautiful happened. A couple of dear friends offered our entire family the use of their lakefront cottage while they were away this summer. It was the perfect gift at the perfect time — a reminder to stay in the present moment, to breathe, and to find peace even amid uncertainty.This experience became the backdrop for today’s conversation, where we look more deeply at how we live with uncertainty, how we manage anxiety, and how we can transform suffering into a source of wisdom

November 12, 202512 min

Podcast #113 - “When Life Feels Heavy: The Wisdom Within Suffering”

We’d love to hear from you please leave a commentIn this episode, Ron and Gregg open up a bit more. We sharing some stories that get into the harder side of anxiety and suffering. They’re honest, sometimes uncomfortable, but also very real. And they help us see that even in those darker places, there’s room for learning, growth, and—ultimately—wisdom.So as you listen, think about the moments in your own life when you’ve struggled, or felt overwhelmed, and how those experiences might have shaped you. Because that’s really what this conversation is about—finding the threads of wisdom woven through our suffering and uncertainty.