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Do you want to understand people better? Understanding people better can help us be more effective in our work, our personal lives, and in many everyday situations. Seeing others more clearly can also help us connect better with them, reduce our anger, and lead happier lives.

I’m Zach Elwood. On this podcast I talk to people from a wide range of professions about how they read behavior and use psychology in their work. Popular episodes include: relationship tells, interrogation techniques, poker tells, and spotting fake online reviews, to name a few. There are more than 95 episodes.

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About me

I’m most well known for my work on poker tells (aka, poker behavior). My first poker tells book, Reading Poker Tells, has been translated into eight languages. My work on poker tells is regarded by many as the best on the subject. I’ve also done research on deceptive online activity that’s been featured in NY Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere. Here’s my Twitter.

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Episode deep Dives

Deep dives include summaries, transcripts, source and resource links, and listening options.

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…

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…

Analyzing written and verbal statements, with Mark McClish

My second “People Who Read People” podcast features Mark McClish, a former US Marshal, and a longtime trainer of law enforcement personnel in interrogation/interview techniques. He has written two books on his Statement Analysis® techniques: I Know You Are Lying, and Don’t Be Deceived. These are great books; the first book was one of the…

First podcast: featuring stand-up comedian Alex Falcone

I’ve started a podcast, “People Who Read People.” It’ll be me interviewing people from different professions/industries about how they use and interpret psychology and behavior in their work. And yes, the title is a bit of a play on Barbara Streisand’s “People Who Need People” song (which coincidentally is from the musical Funny Girl, which…