This is a podcast aimed at better understanding other people and better understanding ourselves.
I’m Zachary Elwood. On this podcast, I talk to people from a wide range of professions and backgrounds about behavior and psychology.
Ready to jump in? Here are some popular episode compilations:
- Crime & investigation-related
- Politics-related
- Mental health-related
- Sports & games-related
- Behavior bullshit
Here are some of my my favorites.
This is a podcast about deciphering human behavior and understanding why people do the things they do. I, Zach Elwood, talk with people from a wide range of fields about how they make sense of human behavior and psychology. I’ve talked to jury consultants, interrogation professionals, behavior researchers, sports analysts, professional poker players, to name a few. There are more than 135 episodes, many of them quite good (although some say I’m biased). To learn more, go to PeopleWhoReadPeople.com.
How does someone who makes wildly grandiose claims about mind control, interrogation mastery, neuroscience credentials, and secret military psychology operations gain more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers—and land appearances on shows like Joe Rogan and Diary of a CEO—without anyone vetting his story? I’m joined by ex-CIA officer and fraud-exposer Kent Clizbe (kentclizbe.com), and we take a hard look at Chase Hughes’ actual Navy record and compare it to his many lies, exaggerations, and ambiguous statements about his credentials. We dig into the specific stages of Chase’s military career, his claims of Harvard and Duke neuroscience education, his belief that we live in a simulation (and that psychedelics have helped see the code of that simulation), his pick-up artist background, and his grandiose claims about his psychological knowledge. If you’re interested in how cults of personality and false gurus work—and how even experienced professionals and major platforms can help these people on their rise to popularity—this deep dive into Hughes’ background and the psychology of modern con artistry is one you won’t want to miss.
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Find this podcast on:
Popular Episodes
- About this podcast: why I do it and why I think it’s important
- Questioning if body language is useful for detecting lies, with Tim Levine
- Reading and predicting jury behavior, with Christina Marinakis
- How to spot fake online reviews, with Olu Popoola
- Persuasion in polarized environments, with Matthew Hornsey
- Relationship “tells”, with Brandi Fink
- Cryptocurrency, problem gambling, and addiction, with Paul Delfabbro
- Reading poker tells, with poker pro Dara O’Kearney
- Why do so many people “want to watch the world burn”?, with Kevin Arceneaux
- Understanding and coping with anxiety, with editor of The Atlantic Scott Stossel
About me
I’m most known for my work on poker tells (aka, poker behavior). My first poker tells book, Reading Poker Tells, has been translated into eight languages. I’m also known for my work on political polarization (for example, my book Defusing American Anger). My independent research on deceptive online activity has been featured in NY Times, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and more.
Like the show?
If you enjoy this podcast, please share it with others, and/or write me a review on Apple Podcasts. If you want to support my work, get a premium podcast subscription, or sign up for my depolarization-aimed Substack newsletter. Other ways to show appreciation: subscribe to this podcast on YouTube or Apple or Spotify (or wherever). You can also sign up below to get updates.