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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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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.

Debunking Chase Hughes of NCI University: The lies of the “#1 expert in behavior & influence”

Chase Hughes refers to himself as the “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” A popular YouTube show that he’s on, the Behavioral Panel, gets millions of views. Dr. Phil has featured Chase on his show and called him the “best on the globe.” Chase’s company NCI University charges people thousands of dollars for their training…

A skeptical talk with an astrologer

I talk to a professional astrologist named Ophira Edut. I myself don’t believe in astrology but I was interested in asking her questions I’ve wanted to ask about astrology — and the meta-level topic of people’s belief in astrology. Topics include: why she believes in astrology; how her beliefs in that relate to other beliefs…

Behavior expert says Trump lied at press conference

In this episode, I talk again about fake behavior expert Jack Brown, whose pseudoscientific behavior analysis work I devoted a past episode to. Jack Brown got some recent attention in a Raw Story article for an analysis he wrote about how Trump’s body language at a press conference showed that Trump was lying. Topics discussed…

Updates about my podcast and polarization work success and failures

I may not work on the podcast much in the near future; I might stop entirely. This short episode includes some updates about how the podcast has been going and how my polarization-related work and books has been going. Episode links:

How magicians misdirect attention and manipulate audiences, with Anthony Barnhart

A talk with psychologist and magician Anthony Barnhart focused on how magicians misdirect attention and manipulate an audience. Other topics include: the role blinking can play in misdirections; acts that claim to use psychology and behavior-manipulation to achieve magic-like effects (e.g., Derren Brown’s act); neuro-linguistic programming (NLP); a magic show Tony was impressed by recently…

Tackling objections to political depolarization

Media bias specialist Vanessa Otero, founder of Ad Fontes Media, talks to me (Zach Elwood) about my books aimed at reducing toxic political polarization in America. Topics discussed include: common objections to and skepticism about this work (for example, views that those working on depolarization are “helping the bad guys”; why overcoming objections is so…

How minor language choices can affect and manipulate us, with Liz Stokoe

This is a reshare of a talk I had in January 2022 with Liz Stokoe, who studies conversation analysis (CA) and who’s the author of the book “Talk: The Science of Conversation.” Stokoe studies how language choices can impact us and change our behavior, often without us being aware of that. Topics include: the more…

Why are lie detectors used if they don’t work?, with Leonard Saxe

A talk with psychologist Leonard Saxe, who is known for, amongst other things, his research into lie detectors (also known as polygraphs). Topics discussed include: why polygraphs and other forms of deception detection are unreliable; the use of polygraphs as a tool to extract information and confessions; the Richard Ames case, which involved a high-level…

Indicators a 2020 video showing racist harassment was staged

This episode examines a video from 2020 that seemed to show a black person being harassed by a racist white woman. The video was shared by the celebrity gossip personality Perez Hilton, and was then picked up by several low-quality news sites, like RawStory.com and DailyDot.com. But the video was staged; it was done as…