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This is a podcast aimed at better understanding other people and better understanding ourselves. 

I’m Zach Elwood. On this podcast, I talk to people from a wide range of professions and backgrounds about behavior and psychology.

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Here are some of my my favorites.

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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.

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Episode deep Dives

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

Examining the political impacts of violent protests and riots, with Dr. Omar Wasow

In this episode of the People Who Read People podcast, I interview Dr. Omar Wasow (here’s his Twitter), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, and author of a paper entitled “Agenda Seeding: How 1960s Black Protests Moved Elites, Public Opinion, and Voting.” In that research, he found that civil rights-related…

A talk with a militant Portland-based antifa/BLM protester

In this episode, I interview a self-described anti-fascist who has frequently taken part in the more militant and unlawful aspects of the BLM-focused protests and riots that have occurred in Portland, Oregon in the wake of George Floyd’s death. This person has also taken part in physical confrontations with alt-right pro-Trump groups, like the Proud…

Did Cambridge Analytica really perform ‘a great hack’? A talk with Dave Karpf

On this episode of the People Who Read People podcast, I talk with Dave Karpf, (twitter: @davekarpf), a political scientist and associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. There’s a good chance you’ve heard about how Cambridge Analytica used access to the Facebook data of millions of U.S. citizens and advanced…

Evaluating psych patients in emergency room settings, with Rob Tarzwell

On this episode, I talk with Dr. Rob Tarzwell, a psychiatrist and psych researcher. I talk to him about his 15 years as a psychiatric doctor in emergency room (ER) settings. We talk about some of the strategies and processes involved in trying to distinguish psych conditions from other types of conditions in the ER,…

Examining factors behind offensive speech, with Dr. Timothy Jay

A talk with Dr. Timothy Jay, a psychologist and expert on the phenomenon of cursing. He has written several books, including Why We Curse, Cursing in America, and We Did What? (here is Dr. Jay’s Amazon author page). A transcript is below. On social media, we often see videos of someone saying or doing rude,…

Can you predict schizophrenia by analyzing language?, with Dr. Neguine Rezaii

The latest People Who Read People podcast episode is an interview with Dr. Neguine Rezaii, a psychiatrist and psychology researcher, about her team’s 2019 research using machine learning finding speech patterns in young adults that were predictive of later psychosis and schizophrenia diagnosis. The two language patterns found in the subjects’ speech were 1) a…

Reading thought patterns in fMRI brain imaging, with Dr. Marcel Just

The 19th “People Who Read People” podcast episode is an interview with Dr. Marcel Just, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, about his work using function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look for brain activity related to specific thoughts. For example: differentiating the brain activity of someone thinking about an apple versus thinking about other…

Indicators of native Russian authorship in English language text, with Dr. Brian Baer

The 18th “People Who Read People” podcast episode is an interview with Dr. Brian Baer, a skilled Russian-to-English translator. Dr. Baer is a Professor of Russian and Translation Studies at Kent State University, where he’s a member of the Institute for Applied Linguistics. He also has worked on several literary translations (see his books on…

SPECT brain imaging, with Dr. Rob Tarzwell

The 17th “People Who Read People” podcast episode is an interview with Dr. Rob Tarzwell. about his work using single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) brain imaging to find indicators of traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and brain changes related to dynamic psychotherapy. His research on traumatic brain injury and PTSD appeared 19th…