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People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology Podcast

People Who Read People: A Behavior and Psychology Podcast

Body language lies: The pseudoscience and silliness spread by alleged behavior "experts"

Jan 9, 2026 · 1h 12m

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On this episode

About this episode

Can you really tell who’s lying just by watching their body language? Are there any practical takeaways you can reliably and regularly get from studying nonverbal behavior in interrogation/interview settings? In this episode, I, Zach Elwood (author of some popular books on poker tells) talk to Chris Shelton, host of Speaking of Cults (speakingofcults.com). We take a hard look at the booming industry of alleged “body language experts,” behavior-based deception detection, and viral interrogation analysis (popular on YouTube and video platforms). We unpack why confident claims about blinks, posture, eye direction, and micro-movements are often misleading, how pseudoscience sneaks into true…