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PODCAST

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology Podcast

This is a podcast about deciphering human behavior and understanding why people do the things they do. I, Zach Elwood, talk with people from a wide range of fields about how they make sense of human behavior and psychology. I"ve talked to jury consultants, interrogation professionals, behavior researchers, sports analysts, professional poker players, to name a few. There are more than 135 episodes, many of them quite good (although some say I"m biased). To learn more, go to

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All Episodes

00:52:45

Mirror selfies, duck faces, and party pics: On...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/02/08

I talk to Dr. Jess Snitko, who has researched online dating and other online communication, about the signals and messages we send, intentionally and unintentionally, with dating app profiles and pictures. Jess earned her Ph.D. in Media, Technology, and Society from Purdue University in 2020. Topics discussed: Factors in pictures and profiles that cause people to swipe right or swipe left; the so-called “duck-face” expression some girls make in photos; men’s shirtless photos; men who post pictures

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00:58:26

His kneecaps were ruptured due to a healthcare...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/01/31

Cheo Rose-Washington had an accident that ruptured his knee cap tendons. Then a medical miscommunication between healthcare providers led to him rupturing those same tendons again! That experience led to him deciding to try to do something to improve medical “hand-offs” (the sharing of a patient’s information and status from one healthcare provider to another). Hand-off mistakes are due to a range of communication problems. Cheo founded the company Hand-off to try to fix this all-too-common problem

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00:53:35

Is the left-right spectrum an illusion that harms us?...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/01/24

What if I told you the left-right political spectrum was an illusion? What if I told you there is no “left” or “right”? My guest is Hyrum Lewis, co-author of The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America. They argue that we’ve embraced a simplistic, faulty idea of an essential “left/liberalism” and an essential “right/conservatism.” And that, similar to embracing a faulty medical idea (like the old theory of the four humors), embracing a faulty political theory

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00:23:26

Does Trader Joe's pressure its employees to talk to...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/01/19

Every time I go in Trader Joe's, the checkout person asks me a question of some sort. I used to think everyone there was just happy and friendly, but then I heard reports that it was more of a rule or strong encouragement that employees talk to customers. I read conflicting reports about this online and wanted to talk to someone who'd worked at Trader Joe's, to see if she could shed some light on this. I talk to Twiggy, who has a YouTube channel (youtube.com/@TwiggysDollHospital) and who makes

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00:53:23

The charlatan Chase Hughes promoted by popular shows...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/01/18

The fraud Chase Hughes, whose major lies and unethical behaviors I’ve examined in past episodes, continues to succeed in getting popular podcasts with large audiences to interview him. Chase recently appeared on the podcast The Diary of a CEO with host Steven Bartlett; he also appeared on Patrick Bet-David’s podcast (PBD podcast). He's also been on Dr. Phil's show, and on Leon Hendrix's podcast DRVN. I examine some clips from Chase's appearances on a couple of these podcasts, as a public service

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00:18:24

The polarization of Elon Musk: His high-contempt...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/01/12

In June of 2024, I got an op-ed published in TheHill.com about Elon Musk's polarization -- specifically his so-called "affective polarization," which refers to how people perceive and treat their political opponents. Like many in our highly polarized, righteously angry society, Elon Musk treats the "other side" with much contempt and disdain. You can often find him insulting and demeaning people on his social media platform, as well as claiming to know with high certainty the hidden, malicious

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00:19:09

Explanations for those 3 famous UFO videos from 2017

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2025/01/09

Brian Dunning, creator of the podcast Skeptoid, made a documentary that brings a skeptical, analytical eye to the recent UFO craze – including those three famous UFO videos released by the Pentagon that got a whole lot of attention in a 2017 New York Times article. His documentary has the tongue-in-cheek title “The UFO Movie They Don’t Want You To See” and you can find it at www.briandunning.com/ufo. I think more people need to see Brian’s movie; it explained a lot and now I feel like I finally

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01:17:00

Reading faces: A dumb 1960s book on reading physical...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/12/21

I thought it'd be interesting to read a very dumb book from 1969 called "Face Reading: A Guide to How the Human Face Reveals Personality, Sexuality, Intelligence, Character, and More." It's about finding meaning in people's physical facial characteristics; not about reading emotions or expressions. To be clear: this is a very bad book with no sense/logic to it, basically astrology-like, and I'm reading it because I was curious what it said and thought some other people would find it interesting. I'm

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00:08:24

I interrogate an 8-year-old about her belief in...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/12/21

I interrogate an 8-year-old about her belief in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and other magical creatures. Learn more and sign up for a premium subscription at PeopleWhoReadPeople.com.

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00:07:13

To avoid destruction, we must recognize we're in a...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/11/11

A piece I wrote for my Defusing American Anger Substack (learn more at www.american-anger.com). It’s my attempt to persuade Americans why they should see it as vitally important to work on reducing political toxicity, even as they may have various fears and grievances and anger about their political opponents. If you have skepticism about the ideas in this piece, I would ask you if you'd be willing to read my ebook on this topic, Defusing American Anger. If you want a free copy, email me via my

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00:25:12

Many take Trump's words out of context: How this...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/10/22

In a recent Fox News interview, Trump was asked whether he thought there would be chaos and violence if he won the election, and his response included mentioning that, if necessary, the National Guard or other military might be needed. Many framed this response as indicating that Trump would go after his political opponents and those who opposed him using the military, leaving out the context that the question asked was about election-related violence. I discuss what this incident can teach us about

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00:49:16

Analyzing behavior of Peter Todd, who's accused of...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/10/18

In the documentary Money Electric, filmmaker Cullen Hoback put forth the theory that developer Peter Todd was Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. In this episode, I talk to cryptocurrency expert Jeremy Clark (pulpspy.com) about this theory, with a focus on the language and behavior of Peter Todd. We discuss: the 2010 forum post by Peter Todd that forms the backbone of Hoback’s theory; Peter’s behavior in the film when confronted, which many people saw as suspicious and strange; the

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00:13:50

Scammer on Nextdoor gets my personal info: Tips for...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/10/15

On the Nextdoor app, a fake account succeeded in getting some personal info from me before I realized they were a scammer. I discuss how that scam went down, share an audio call I had with the scammer, and give some tips for spotting online scammer behaviors and traits. These tips are focused on online marketplace scams but should be applicable for a lot of online scammers in general. Learn more and sign up for a premium subscription at PeopleWhoReadPeople.com.

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00:39:28

What’s the problem with the Myers-Briggs personality...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/10/08

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test is used by many organizations and consultants, but it's been criticized by many as pseudo-science that's unhelpful, and even harmful. I talk to Randy Stein, who has researched the Myers Briggs and personality tests in general. Topics discussed include: the reasons people object to the Myers Briggs test; the downsides of personality tests that group people into boxes (as opposed to using a spectrum-like approach); the Forer effect, where people

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00:31:24

Some useful and reliable poker tells: A talk with...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/10/01

This episode includes part of a poker tells webinar that I, Zach Elwood, did with Terry Wood, owner of PokerRailbird.com. I'm the author of three respected books on poker tells, including Exploiting Poker Tells and Verbal Poker Tells. My first book, Reading Poker Tells, has been translated into eight languages. You can learn more about my poker tells work at readingpokertells.com. Topics discussed: two important categories of poker tells; some specific examples of poker tells (including eye contact

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01:14:12

Chase Hughes, NLP, & hypnosis: Putting a top-secret...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/09/26

This is my third episode about Chase Hughes, the self-titled “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” My first episode about him examined his early deceptions and exaggerations, and his involvement in pick-up artistry and vitamin supplement sales. In this one, I talk about how Chase’s work relates to Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and NLP-related hypnosis. Long story short: Chase has used the NLP trainer template but repackaged it with a military/secret-agent/MK-Ultra-type spin. I examine the

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00:36:26

We’re MASSIVELY overstating our political violence...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/09/16

Many surveys and headlines have claimed there's a large percentage of Americans who support political violence. Some estimates have been around 25% – and some have gone as high as 40%! This is very scary; it ramps up fears of a violent and chaotic American future, and even fears of a civil war. But political polarization researchers like my guest Sean Westwood have shown that many people are massively overstating the problem. And that overstatement is leading to hysterical and unhelpful framings and

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00:26:33

Angry Chase Hughes’ fans lash out after his many lies...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/09/09

This is a follow up to my last episode, in which I shared information about the many lies of Chase Hughes, the self-described “#1 expert in behavior and influence.” Some of the fans of Chase Hughes and the show he’s on, The Behavior Panel, responded in angry, unreasonable ways, personally insulting me and downplaying the significance of Chase’s many deceptions. Some of the people who responded in these ways, from what I’ve been told, are also social media content moderators who work for Chase Hughes

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01:04:12

Examining the lies of Chase Hughes, the...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/09/02

An examination of the deceptive and strange background of Chase Hughes, who 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 called him the “best on the globe.” But Chase’s career is built on a foundation of lies and exaggerations — not only in the behavior and psychology space, but also in other pursuits, including pick-up artistry and vitamin supplements. He has made many grandiose claims

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01:00:18

I don't believe in astrology but I talked to an...

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology... ·

2024/08/26

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 about belief in astrology. Topics include: why she believes in astrology, how her beliefs in that relate to other beliefs (like Reiki or other metaphysical ideas), people's negative views about astrology (including the view that people promoting astrology are doing harm); the importance of engaging respectfully with people we

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191 results

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