Have spread it to our Italian Paleo community here in Italy.

[...] will start about 1.5 hours from now. You can stream the radio station. See details at gnolls.org. Interview with J. Stanton on The Mike Smyth Show, CKNW 980 Radio, Vancouver - GNOLLS.ORG Reply With Quote   + Reply to Thread « Previous Thread | [...]

Am tuned in....!

Your host seemed to find the paleo idea alien. A tough gig - but good effort!

JS,

Any chance of getting an mp3 upload of the segment? I can't seem to access it from Australia 🙁

As I have blogged and posted on a few forums, my introduction to the paleo diet came from considering what I would eat if I were out in the wilderness.

I first saw this concept written down by Tamir Katz and I immediately got the idea*.

Now when I describe the diet to anyone, I ask them this very question, and most people immediately 'get it'. The answer is intuitive, they'd eat meat and seasonal vegetation/fruit.

From here it is easy for them to grasp how our ancestors must have lived and because they have come up with this answer themselves, it resonates deeply.

This approach might have been a useful technique with the interviewer last night (and future ones), as it immediately avoids that divide created when the interviewer interprets the paleo diet as 'that caveman thing' and classifies paleo enthusiasts as 're-enactors'.

*Although it took Art DeVany's Essay on Evolutionary Fitness to blow open the whole 'paleo' deal for me - making me think about IF, barefooting, cold water swimming and limiting chronic light exposure year-round.

Another idea (that I posted up on Paleohacks), is simply to ask someone what their grandparents ate (assuming they themselves are at least 30 ish). The answer should be around 80% Paleo 2.0.

Keeping the message simple and making people realise that this is NOT a novel diet but actually one with a long pedigree will be the key to its success.

“the author of something called the paleo diet”

LOL, That's so funny (and sad)! I assumed, given the fact that the paleo community is already that big, the media would at least know about the paleo concept or just the word itself. But it seems she had no clue at all.

It's sad how dumb the majority of people is, journalists included. It was very important to her and a listener what your credentials are and they wonder why they should believe you if you aren't a doctor. But that's the point, they don't want to know, they want to believe what a person of authority told them. If you don't have that degree you can tell what you want, the most people won't think about it.

Am I the only one who thinks most people never grew up? It's a child like behavior to just believe authoritarians without thinking. It's like a child crying to be fed by her mother. And then someone comes along and says "No, this mush is not what you are supposed to eat". The answer, while doubtful looking up to the authority: "But she said it's good for me, who are you to talk about what is healthy?"

Sad.

Anyway, your part of the interview was great. You really managed to get most of the necessary stuff into this few minutes. But I think the interviewer didn't really get the seed jokes 😀 She was still busy to handle the thought that even one single person on this planet thinks read meat and fat is actually good.

I see. I am from Europe and we have literally no paleo community here. I thought, since for example Cordain sold more than 100.000 books, the concept is already well-known in the english-spoken world. I also saw the "cavemen" diet being discussed on some big tv shows in the US.

"The point of talk radio is to cause a controversy, so I was mentally
prepared to have my credentials questioned.  Frankly, I was surprised it
wasn't more confrontational…but I think I did a good job of defusing
the attempts to bait me into vegetarian-bashing."

Just checked out what "talk radio" is. Interesting, we don't have that in Germany. Wish I could find some "controversy" on radio here which consists only of pointless small talk, news, mainstream music and the wheather.

"As far as authority figures, I'm pretty sure that "civilization" has
selected us for obeying them.  Anyone who doesn't bite their tongue when
the lord (or his tax collector) comes by and takes half their stuff
tends to get beheaded — or at least thrown in jail.  We must reclaim
some of our evolutionary heritage as independent, self-sufficient
hunters if we're going to escape Orwell's "boot stomping on a human
face, forever".  

Not incidentally, these are some of the subjects I address in The Gnoll Credo."

I think even more devastating is todays parenting and education methods. Maybe there is a tendency in selection for those who obey but in general we see people thriving when parented in harmony whith evolutionary laws (see "The Continuum Concept", J. Liedloff) and get educated without any compulsion (homeschooling, unschooling). If you force someone to learn facts they don't care about you kill there desire for true understanding of the world.

Every child is curious but civilisation destroys this, beginning with early childhood and ending with graduation, marking their beginning of a life in a prison. It is self-chosen one but seldom are people able to brake free. Only those who are willed to face their inner demons, their traumatic past are eventually able to find happiness in life. Honestly, I am not sure at the moment if it is possible at all to overcome most influences of civilisation and become independend and self-sufficient if one has gone through this.

I think our eating habits is one part of a lifestyle which notices that everything in society now is diametral to our health and evolutionary heritage - be it food, nurture or education which is reflected in every part of our society - in politics, media, relationships, etc.

Your book looks interesting. Is it written in plain english?