How Words Work with Jack Fox

Jack Fox posted something recently about convincing language. That the most powerful thing you can remove from your own words is the convincing. That when you stop trying to make people believe you, you become...

I say honestly all the time and I'm not a liar. I know. And this episode is for you. The patterns this podcast pulls apart in criminals and manipulators show up in honest, well-intentioned people every single day. Not...

At the Lindsay Clancy trial an expert witness, Dr Avram Mack, provided a great example of something I warn against: starting answers with the word "so". Listen, as his credibility erodes through this tactic, the...

I get this question more than any other. Is this word bad? Should I stop saying it? And the answer is always the same. Words aren't good or bad. They're just words. But every word you say sends a signal to the person...

I've spent years studying the words of thousands of criminals and people under pressure. And one of the things I've found is that some of the most revealing words in any statement aren't the big ones. They're the tiny...

I've spent years studying the words of thousands of criminals. And in all that time the most important thing I've learned is this. You already know how to hear the difference between someone you trust and someone you...

Someone asks you a question. A simple one. And instead of answering it, you tell them the story around it. The context. The background. The reasons. The timeline. By the time you stop talking they know a lot about your...

In Netflix's The Crash, Mackenzie Shirilla talked about her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan. She said what she thought a grieving, innocent person should say. Loving. Protective. Partners. Full of...

In May 2026 Netflix released The Crash, a documentary about Mackenzie Shirilla, convicted of the murders of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. Before the documentary, most people had never heard of her. She had a blank...

The US military spent decades working out how to write emails that can't be misunderstood under pressure. They landed on three rules. Subject lines that say what the email actually wants. Bottom Line Up Front. Active...

When OJ Simpson stood up at his arraignment in 1994 he didn't say "not guilty". He said "absolutely, 100 percent not guilty". Three extra words that mean nothing legally, because "not guilty" is a binary. You can't be...

In May 2024, CNN released hotel surveillance footage of Sean "Diddy" Combs assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. Within 24 hours, Diddy posted a 70-second apology video to Instagram. He never said her name. Not...

I've spent years studying how language builds and destroys credibility. From criminal cases to everyday conversations, the patterns are always the same. But this week I came across something that stopped me in my...

<p>I've spent years studying how language builds and destroys credibility. From criminal cases to everyday conversations, the patterns are always the same. But this week I came across something that stopped me in my...

<p>I've spent years studying how people communicate under pressure. And there is no pressure like being questioned under oath. Every evasion, every deflection, every moment of crumb throwing and safer ground and buying...