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podcast

Indicators of fake Amazon reviews, with linguistic researcher Olu Popoola

The twelfth “People Who Read People” episode is an interview with Olu Popoola, a forensic linguistic researcher focused on studying indicators of deception. He’s a doctoral researcher at University of Birmingham U.K. and he also consults as a fraud investigator and corporate trainer on deception detection. Here’s his Twitter account: @oepopoola. Here’s his bio and here’s his blog at Outliar.blog.

Links to the episode:

Topics discussed include:

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podcast

Experiences from a maximum security prison, with Benjamin Moots

The eleventh “People Who Read People” episode is an interview with Benjamin Moots, who spent 15 years in prison, mostly in maximum security settings, for second-degree murder. Ben is on Twitter at @realfishydonk.

Links to the episode:

Topics discussed include:

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podcast

Behavioral indicators of good and bad relationships, with psych researcher Brandi Fink

An interview with Brandi Fink, a psychology researcher and an assistant professor at UNM Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Brandi has done a lot of work analyzing the behavior of couples and families experiencing problems, including issues of physical abuse, emotional distress, and drug/alcohol abuse. She once worked with the famous relationship researcher and therapist John Gottman. Brandi and I talk about behavioral indicators of healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Links to the episode:

Topics discussed include:

  • The goals of analyzing and logging the video-taped behaviors of couples/families
  • Some of the common physical and verbal behaviors (like eye rolls and other indicators of contempt) that indicate trouble in a relationship, and those that can indicate relationship improvement or health
  • How high heart rate variability (having a heart beat that changes speeds frequently) is linked to being more mentally disciplined and emotionally healthy
  • Tips for improving a relationship
  • Brain scan research Dr. Fink has done related to how alcohol affects the brain and how alcohol leads to relationship issues
  •  The challenges of creating a behavior coding system (not wanting to go too micro-level or too macro-level)
  • Whether cultural differences can impact the analysis of behavior

Here are some resources and articles and studies related to some of the stuff we discussed:

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podcast

Interviews about psychological tactics in door-to-door sales

The latest “People Who Read People” episode is an interview with two people who’ve both had success in door-to-door sales:

  • Conrad Smith, lawyer and founder of marketing firm LeaderShield: He talks to us about his experience being a leading door-to-door salesperson of a well-known home security system. Conrad’s Twitter is here.
  • Dave Mock, former poker dealer and current professional poker player: He talks to us about his experience doing door-to-door sales and sales management for a large home remodeling company. Dave’s Twitter is here.

Links to the episode:

Some topics discussed:

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podcast

Restaurant psychology: an interview with service industry pro Robin Dibble

My eighth People Who Read People podcast episode is an interview with Robin Dibble. Robin is an experienced Albuquerque-area service industry professional who’s worked all sides of the business, from waiting tables, to cooking, to managing restaurants and night clubs.

Most recently, he helped open and manage Poki Poblano in Albquerque, which just recently shut down but racked up some great Yelp reviews in the 10 months it was open. Robin is also available for restaurant consultation/strategizing, especially for people new to the restaurant business. His Twitter is @dibblerobin and his Instagram is @dr._.dibbs.

Links to the episode:

Some topics discussed:

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podcast

Interview with Robert Drysdale on psychology and behavior in MMA and jiu-jitsu

My seventh ‘People Who Read People’ podcast episode is an interview with Robert Drysdale. Drysdale is a well-known Brazilian jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts expert, champion, and trainer. If you’d like to know more about him, you can read his Wikipedia. He currently operates a training gym in Las Vegas: Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu.

Links to the episode:

In this episode, we talk about:

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podcast

Podcast interview: Psychology and behavior in fencing, with Seth Baldwin

My sixth ‘People Who Read People’ podcast episode is an interview with Seth Baldwin. Seth is an experienced fencer (swords, not fence posts) who, at the peak of his career, finished 3rd in 2004 at the U.S. National Championships and was 7th alternate for the Olympic fencing team.

Links to the episode:

In this episode, we talk about:

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crime podcast

Podcast interview on social engineering with Jenny Radcliffe

My fifth ‘People Who Read People’ podcast episode is an interview with Jenny Radcliffe (www.jennyradcliffe.com), who goes by the title “The People Hacker”. She’s an expert in social engineering (aka, the manipulation of people to achieve access to goods or information) and non-verbal behavior and psychology. She offers her infiltration services (aka penetration testing or pen-testing) to corporations who want to test their susceptibility to social engineering and in-person hacking, and is a frequent speaker at security-related events. She offers consultation services, gives seminars, and has given TEDx talks. She has her own podcast: The Human Factor. She’s on Twitter at @jenny_radcliffe.

Links to the episode:

In our talk, we discuss:

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podcast

Interview about pinball

In August of 2018 I interviewed an acquaintance, Jon Bismut, who’s a big pinball aficionado/player/fan. He’s not a big name in the pinball world, but he knows enough that I thought it would make an interesting interview for people, like myself, who don’t know much about pinball. One thing that initially struck my interest and made me want to interview him was him saying how big an edge highly-skilled pinball players have on lesser opponents; it’s a very big edge. This was surprising to me, being a novice who usually can’t last more than a few seconds on a pinball machine, so I wanted to delve into what makes a great pinball player and what makes it such a skill game.

Also, did you know that “tilting” in poker has its origin (so it’s widely assumed) from when pinball machines would go on Tilt from being jostled too much? Just an interesting poker connection.

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crime podcast

Podcast interview: Interrogation/interview techniques with David Zulawski

My fourth ‘People Who Read People’ podcast episode is an interview with David Zulawski, an expert in interrogation and interview techniques. Zulawski is the cofounder of Wicklander Zulawski and Associates, a company that consults and trains people on interrogation and interviewing. Before starting that business in 1982, he worked in several law enforcement and investigative positions; he’s been a licensed polygraph examiner, a licensed private investigator, and a certified fraud examiner.

Links to the show on different platforms (some stuff we talked about is below that):

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podcast poker tells

Brian Rast talks poker tells

I was honored to get a chance a couple months ago to talk to high-stakes poker player Brian Rast. The YouTube video is below. It’s rare to get a high-stakes players insights into poker strategy or tells, as many, for good reason, don’t want other high-stakes opponents to get insight about their game. So it’s great that Rast was willing to talk honestly about his stances on how important behavior/tells are in poker. I also plan on updating my Exploiting Poker Tells book in the near future with a few updates, and that would include some snippets from this interview.

This conversation was what led to my decision to start doing the People Who Read People podcast. Unfortunately, I wasn’t planning on doing anything with the audio when I recorded it, so the audio is quite bad, and I’ve decided to just put this interview up on Youtube, and not on iTunes and the other podcast platforms.

Categories
crime podcast

Interview on jury selection psychology and behavioral factors

My third ‘People Who Read People’ podcast was an interview with Dr. Christina Marinakis, an expert on jury selection and voir dire. She is currently the Director of Jury Research at Litigation Insights, a trial consultancy firm. She has also contributed to the second edition of the book Pattern Voir Dire Questions. For a transcript of this talk, see this post.

Some things we talk about in this podcast:

  • What is the process of jury selection like, and how does it differ depending on types of court cases?
  • How important is voir dire? How much influence does it have on a court case?
  • If jury selection can be seen as a game, what are some of the strategies used?
  • How much does the behavior of potential jurors influence your decisions?
  • What are some ways lawyers or jury consultants use their own behavior to attain their goals?

Links to the show: