Do you want to understand people better? The things they do, the things they say? People-reading skills can help us in our work, our personal lives, and in many everyday situations.
I’m Zach Elwood. On this podcast I talk to people from a wide range of fields about how they read behavior and use psychology in their work. Popular episodes include: interrogation techniques, poker tells, relationship tells, spotting fake online reviews, and analyzing statements for hidden meaning, to name a few. There are more than 80 episodes.
I also sometimes tackle political polarization-related topics, with a focus on the psychology behind that. See all my politics-related episodes.
Understanding the behavior of other people can help us in our work, our personal lives, and in many everyday situations. Host Zachary Elwood talks to people from a wide range of fields about how they read people, predict behavior, and use psychology in their work. Popular episodes include: indicators of healthy and unhealthy relationships, interrogation strategies, reading poker tells, indicators of fake online reviews, and jury consultant strategies (to name a few). Political polarization and its causes is also a recurring focus. For more info, see behavior-podcast.com.
A talk with conflict resolution specialist Guy Burgess, who, along with his wife Heidi Burgess, run the project www.beyondintractability.org. Guy and Heidi wrote a paper in 2022 titled ”Applying conflict resolution insights to the hyper‐polarized, society‐wide conflicts threatening liberal democracies.” I talk with Guy about: how conflict resolution principles might be applied to U.S. polarization problems; the importance of addressing liberal-side contributions to polarization; the common objections people can have to seeing polarization as a problem that both sides must tackle; how some in the conflict resolution space may be hindered from helping by their own liberal bias and polarization; the Burgesses' ideas for what society must do to reduce polarization to more healthy levels, and more.
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Popular Episodes
- 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
- Group psychology, polarization, and persuasion, with Matthew Hornsey
- Behavioral indicators of healthy or unhealthy relationships, 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
- How does not believing in free will affect one’s life?, with physicist Daniel Whiteson
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 and is regarded by many as the best book on the subject. I’ve also done research on deceptive online activity that’s been featured in NY Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere.
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