I would really like to have Joel Salatin - the polyculture farmer featured in The Omnivore's Dilemma. I care a lot about sustainability and how we can make nutritious calories available to as many people as possible while preserving limited resources. Joel's farm - Polyface Farms - fully integrates animals and grows a wide variety of crops. I would like to know more about how many people his farm could feed and the scalability of polyculture farming systems. We often assume that ethically-sourced meat and the Paleo Diet is simply not sustainable and we should just not worry about it. I disagree. I think Joel Salatin and other similar farmers/ranchers/butchers have an important perspective on the feasibility of this diet and can tell us how we can support them to get more of these products onto the market.

I would like to see Jon Gabriel from The Gabriel Method. He's a little bit commercial but I would be interested to see what he would offer--especially on his emotional weight commentary and stress as it relates to paleo.

Dr. Michel Odent and Dr. Sarah Buckley, both proponents of unhindered birth.

These two folks will explain why our highly medicalised birth culture is not optimal for our birth physiology.

I would enjoy an informed, issue-oriented, non-acrimonious debate (or at least a well moderated back-and-forth) between (anti-fat, pro-carbs) Dean Ornish and, say, Dr. Rosedale, or Loren Cordain, or Robb Wolf. I realize that's a pipe dream; Ornish would never agree to it. Barring such a forum, I would very much like to hear a presentation from an informed interpreter of experimental science experiments, analyzing the research protocols of Ornish and the research protocols of pro-paleo studies. Because Ornish gets good results with his diet/lifestyle, as do those who follow Wolf's 30-day Challenge. What both have in common of course is opposition to simple carbs and processed foods. Both also are pro-exercise. But both diets are fundamentally different on fat/carb ratios, yet both diets produce subjects with comparably impressive blood work and other health variables. (I myself am getting fantastic results on a paleo diet and exercise plan; neither my body nor mind longs for grain at this point.) A really smart interpreter would burrow down into the particulars of both regimens, and of Ornish's clinical trials and those that have been conducted on the paleo lifestyle, and we would hopefully come away with an understanding of whether, in fact, the two approaches are comparable in methodological terms. In short: what sort of meta analysis is possible?

Another interesting presentation would be to put T. Colin Campbell (The China Study) in a carnival dunking booth. Seriously, it would be fun to have a historian of science give a humorous yet pointed overview of examples of propaganda posed as science (China Study) and examples of good intentions combined with lousy methodology, leading to decades of noxious societal ramifications (Ancel Keys).

Me :-)

Of course a narcissist would say that! (Please be kind, this is an attempt at self-deprecating humor gang)

< / self serving >

As somewhat of an inside outsider*, I think AHS12 would be better served sticking with speakers discussing that broader umbrella embodied by the title "ancestral health".

Paleo, primal, WAPF -- evolutionary and/or traditional culture inspired approaches to nutrition and health. The pros and possible cons of such and arguments for and against certain foods and nutrients. Having speakers such as Dr. Eades -- whose last book encouraged detoxifying the liver with two weeks of abstinence from alcohol and caffeine while chugging artificially sweetened whey shakes with a dose of DAG oil for good measure -- does not reflect well on "the movement". Yes, I'm no fan, but the purpose of having Naughton speak totally escapes me. Please ... no Fred Hahn next year! (Although I'd like to at least attend as I live only a few hours away and close to Fred so perhaps Melissa, myself and Fred could car pool. LOL that would be fun!).

*inside outsider: I would not describe my WOE as pure paleo, primal or ancestral. However I would say I'm about 95+% PHD (and where I deviate on plan it is more in the protein/fat ratio) but I certainly see acquiescing to "reality" here at PH (dairy, cheats), over on MDA, etc. Thus although folks seem to think otherwise, I'm a big fan of real whole foods and minimizing processed junk.

Dr. Russell Blaylock - He is on top of his stuff! Links below http://www.russellblaylockmd.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W-gba0GPwU http://www.naturalnews.com/020550.html http://www.blaylockreport.com/

It's regrettable that Frank Booth isn't better known in Paleo since he's one of the original figures of evolutionary medicine. Dr Booth's with the University of Missouri medical school, his list of publications filling 21 single spaced pages!

Why Frank Booth? First, Paleo has yet to incorporate exercise physiology, hence the prevalence of commerical theories of exercise dramatically lacking in orientation within the science of evolutionary medicine. While both HIT and CrossFit have gained popularity, from evolutionary exercise physiology, both are very incomplete.

One of Booth's major points is that without exercise activity, singles resulting in genetic sequencing produce unhealthy proteins. Add Paleo to exercise and that singling produces healthy proteins.

Another important point is that much of what we're told about metabolism and exercise in Paleo is not based on exercise physiology - exercise physiology applied in evolutionary context supports genomic expression through robust fitness. So far, one of the major books about fitness in Paleo circles is the Paleo equivalent to The China Study it's so bad.

Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, Martin Berkhan, Anthony Colpo, CarbSane, Matt Stone, James Krieger.

I think they all have something unique and helpful to offer to this community.

Sapolsky and Gladwell

I think it might be useful to hear from some of us 'in the trenches' - dietitians, coaches, and physicians that are actually working with the general population and athletes. It might be helpful for the science based experts to hear about the questions and cases we deal with everyday...

And we could bring in case studies or clients to talk too -for example I work with an Olympic hopeful athlete - hearing the struggles she or my IronMan athletes go through might be neat. Or some of the more complicated situations - whether it be health issues or hectic life situations - real people and the real world.

Lierre Keith The Vegetarian Myth

David H. Freedman, the author of "Wrong: Why experts* keep failing us--and how to know when not to trust them *Scientists, finance wizards, doctors, relationship gurus, celebrity CEOs, ... consultants, health officials and more"

Here's a little taste from his blog: Making Sense of Medicine and Obesity

Christopher Alexander, the architect.

Danny Vendramini author of "them and us"

I'd love to see him discuss his "Teem" theory, updated information on Neanderthal predation since his paternal interbreeding theory has proven correct, etc

Here is my daily AHS12 manifesting session. (Please understand that in order for this to work I have to write this as if it is ABSOLUTELY GOING TO HAPPEN! That's how The Secret works, okay? Are you with me?)

It is NO secret that Dr. Ron Rosedale will be speaking at AHS12. I am not only very excited to hear him speak about longevity but also about his thoughts on how understanding cosmology will help us better understand the proper functioning of the human body. I really hope he talks about how the body is not an organism but a colony of trillions of cells, a beehive!

Next I'll be taking in the Robert Sapolsky talk. He's going to talk all about stress, what makes us human, junk DNA and mating. He is going to be soooooo smart and funny - I can't wait! (I want to put those sticky googly eyes on his beard and call him a stuffed animal!)

At first I thought that the choice to have Aaron Ralston speak was strange. But it makes sense really. So many people of the Paleo persuasion are trying to connect more with nature - this is great! But people need to be well prepared or they may meet with undesirable fates like Aaron - having a huge boulder crash down on your arm! Aaron will also talk about the primal desire to live and how that drove him to sever his own arm to save his life.

The final speaker on the agenda scares me a bit. I forget his/her name, but she's a Monsanto representative. I think his talk will be all about how GMO is GREAT for people and farms. I like to hear all sides of an argument, but I think this talk may actually erupt into something ugly. Maybe not though since she will not be speaking in person but rather from his private Leer Jet via skype which will be projected onto a big conference screen set up in Harvard Yard.

Excited yet? I am!

EDIT: Actually Rosedale says we are not a single organism. We are a collective of cells that, when in hormonal harmony, are working toward the greater good.

Also I think Kurt Vonnegut is going to be great, despite the fact that he is no longer in his right body. As he said "Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia. " That's also why a crazy ass group of us are renting a low reward houseboat with fully equipped kitchen. No restaurants for us. We are all about the family dinner.

Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run. While his book has been read by many in the Paleo circles, it'd just be really interesting to hear about his time with the Tarahumara and minimalist running in general.

http://paleohacks.com/questions/57794/who-would-you-pay-to-hear-at-ahs-2012#axzz1XOkZucVR

Who would you pay to hear at AHS 2012?

There were quite a few "outside" options here.

Since we as a community dismiss fat vs. carb studies that use seed oils and processed grains, I'd like to see someone who has done a Paleo diet study (or can help cause one to happen) using 4 diet groups none of which eat dairy, grains, legumes, processed sugars or seed oils: 1) SAD control 2) high carb low fat (with animal fats, ) 3) low carb high protein/high fat from animal fats and 4) meat/animal fats and high fruit/veggies but low starch. I exclude dairy only because it would require several more groups to include it without polluting the data.

Before and after measurements: body fat %, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. and psychological survey re: emotional well being and cravings. I don't ask for much!

Jamie Oliver (on the politics of industrially processed foods in schools), Anthony Bourdain, or perhaps Daphne Miller (on traditional diets in remote, barely civilized cultures), Richard Wrangham (on the role of cooking in human evolution), Greg Cochran (on the role of agriculture in human evolution), Mary Enig (on lipid biochemistry), David Kessler (on scientifically engineered food reward), and Megan Fox (on whatever she wants).

I would like to see T.S. Wiley who wrote Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar & Survival.

I enthusiastically second Jared Diamond (author of "Guns, Germs, & Steel") as a MUST. He is a pretty low-key professory type (probably because he IS a professor), so he might not be the best speaker per se, but his theories regarding the environmental and its impact on human society/development have everything to do with Paleo.

Tim Ferris (4-hour work week, 4-hour body) would be another big one for me. I consider his first book essential reading for entrepreneurs as it outlines a very "hunter gatherer" esque strategy for creating wealth. Work really hard and really efficiently for a few hours a week, chill the "f" out the rest of the time.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb ("Fooled by Randomness" & "The Black Swan: The impact of the highly improbable") for his exploration of universal power laws and their impact on our human experience.

Chris Anderson ("The Long Tail") for his perspective on the evolution of business models (Public Libraries->Google, Local video stores->Blockbuster video->Netflix, etc.)

Malcolm Gladwell ("Blink", "Tipping Point", "Outliers") because he has a way of talking about everyday assumptions, such as "genius" or "talent" and turning them on their head.

I want to see a Kitavan speak at AHS 2012.

There's all these clever people talking about clever things, and then we go back and discuss these things ad nauseum. How about someone who eats a natural diet and doesn't give a shit about omega 6/3 balance? (for example, the honey badger)

I'd love to see anthropologists John D. Speth, Ralph Holloway, Dan Lieberman, and Richard Wrangham there. Definitely Steven Pinker too...Wrangham, LIberman, and him have no excuse not to be there since they live in the area. I'd gladly give up any spot I'm offered for them.