The Human Behavior Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This week we are talking about how words can influence your behavior.  Now, most of you know that we typically care more about what someone DOES, rather than what someone SAYS but obviously, the words that people choose to use can heavily influence someone’s behavior.  In our discussion we talk about some recent high-profile events to demonstrate that the same words used at a diff...

Send us Fan Mail This week we are joined by long time listener and friend Adam Blanton to talk about the work he has been doing to combat school violence and he explains how violence prevention works at the community level. Adam is a ten-year veteran of law enforcement in Eastern Indiana and currently is a patrol supervisor and Dual-Purpose K9 Handler. He serves as an FBI Task Force Officer Liaiso...

Send us Fan Mail This week we are joined by Gabrielle and Whitney from Lantern Rescue who we had the pleasure of meeting when they attended one of our in-person training courses not long ago. Lantern Rescue is a US based, non-profit that fights against Human Trafficking Internationally. Through previous military and law enforcement experience, Lantern’s Rescue Team trains units that combat Human T...

Send us Fan Mail For this weeks episode we decided to release a conversation that we had with police trainer and former Left of Greg podcast guest, Brian Willis. This conversation was originally recorded last year for Brian’s Excellence in Training Academy so if you’re not a Patreon subscriber, this is the first time you have heard the conversation. In this episode we talk specifically about polic...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are talking about Adaptability and Resilience within the context of learning, survival, and training for the real event. In our discussion, we give our definitions of these terms and we talk about how we use them during our training courses. We also bring up some of the notable figures in this area of study including Donald Meichenbaum, Marty Seligman, and...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are once again talking about the importance of understanding a persons INTENT rather than focusing on their motive. For this episode we are talking about how the difference between a weapon and a tool is not necessarily determined by the object itself, but by the behavior and the intent of the person wielding the object.  Please don’t forget to follow us o...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are talking about the legal rights and responsibilities that schools have when it comes to the safety and security of the children who attend those schools. Although we start the discussion talking about school shootings, we also bring up cases that are much more common to what happens in schools on a daily basis.  The point of the discussion is to show ho...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are answering a question that was sent in by one of our listeners. Since the question deals directly with law enforcement training we decided to bring on a very special guest and friend, Brian Willis.  Brian Willis is recognized throughout North America as a catalyst for change in the law enforcement profession and as a man with many questions. Brian opera...

Send us Fan Mail  In this weeks episode we are talking about challenging our assumptions, specifically when it comes training and education. Due to the fact that we all fall victim to confirmation bias, we tend to assume that some events or outcomes are inevitable when in fact we have the ability to influence a situation far more than we realize.  We discuss three different cases in the episode th...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are diving deep into a descriptive term we use all the time on this show that many of you are probably familiar with called “People want their say, not their way.” At the beginning of the episode Greg and I define what we mean when we use that saying and we also talk about HOW to use the lesson but more importantly we talk about the distinction between som...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are talking about inevitability, and how our own perspective and biases can become a contributing factor to the outcome of a situation.  During the episode we talk about how personal attitudes combined with the fear of the unknown can needlessly escalate situations and how a minor change in perspective can give you a better understanding of your environmen...

Send us Fan Mail In this weeks episode we are answering a question that was sent to us by one of our long time listeners. Brian  reads out the entire question at the beginning of the episode but in general terms, the question has to do with how humans learn and understand consequences at a psychological and physiological level, and how that influences our behavior at a sociological level.  We talk...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is about our approach to solving really hard problems using a THINK instead of a THING. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while you will understand what we mean by this but if you’re new to the show, don’t worry because we give an explanation of what we mean by a THINK instead of a THING right up front at the beginning of the show. In the episode we tal...

Send us Fan Mail We often talk about the human body as a system of sensors and so today we are specifically talking about your sense of smell. When it comes to sensing danger or opportunity in your environment, your sense of smell is extremely powerful as it is tied directly to your emotional response and your memory recall. In today’s episode we explain how and why your sense of smell is tied to...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are going through a list of ten general rules of human behavior that we discuss in many of our episodes either implicitly or explicitly. This is not meant to be some exhaustive, definitive, or all-encompassing list of everything that you need to know about human behavior, it’s simply meant to be used as a guideline from which you can make sense of the daily observations y...

Send us Fan Mail For this weeks episode about narcissists, we wanted to talk to someone who brings an entirely different perspective to the show. So, today Greg and I are talking to high conflict divorce expert Alana Sharps.  Alana has a very niche area of expertise that she fell into after surviving an abusive relationship with her narcissistic ex-husband. After her experience, she began helping...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about how your behavior will change when you are in a crowd of people as opposed to when you are by yourself. There is a lot of research that has been conducted on crowd behavior, crowd psychology, and crowd dynamics but as most of our listeners already know, we take an “intent-based” approach rather than a motivation or ideological based approach. If you want...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about the playground you grow up on and how that even at a young age, most children are subject matter experts at “the playground.” Now obviously we are using this as a metaphor but we offer a very serious and very literal example that we continue to see play out on the news because we haven’t realized yet as a society that school shootings can be prevented.  ...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about the “What if” game and how it often gets misused when planning for potential actions or events. We give a few examples of how we structure a good “what if” game and we also talk about some other follow on questions to ask yourself when you are creating the explanatory storylines that make up the infamous “what if” game.  Please remember to follow us on s...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about the recent catastrophic event in Waukesha Wisconsin where Darrell Brooks drove through a Christmas parade and killed at least 6 people and injured several dozen others. We don’t typically comment on cases until the investigation has been conducted but due to the overwhelming amount of horrible commentary that we’ve seen so far, we decided to offer our ex...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are joined by author Toby Harnden to talk about his new book "First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11." During the episode, Toby shares some of the stories from the CIA officers who were the first people into Afghanistan immediately following the attacks on 9/11. We talk about his experience writing the book and also about some of his...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about a recent case from Austin, Texas where a city code violation regarding lawn care led to a SWAT standoff, a burning home, and a homicide.  We are using this case to demonstrate how to look at a rapidly unfolding situation and determine likely outcomes based on the information that you have available at the time.  Please remember to follow us on social med...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about a recent case out of Washington state where the State Attorney General sued the Greyhound Bus company for allowing Federal Agents to conduct warrantless immigration sweeps on their buses.  In the episode we discuss some of the notable exceptions to the 4th Amendment of the constitution and we give a few examples of how those play out in everyday life. Gr...

Send us Fan Mail Today, Greg and Brian are explaining the concept of “Left of the NEXT bang.” Meaning, how do you predict what someone is likely going to do next, even in the midst of a chaotic, rapidly unfolding situation? In the episode they use the recent shooting at a Philadelphia hospital as an example of how to determine someone’s likely intent based only on what they’ve done so far; and the...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking about a recent case where a man who called himself “Handcuff Johnny” built and emplaced several pipe bombs at different locations throughout the state of Michigan. We are using this case as an example of how to do two things:  1.) Identify and understand the organization and sophistication level of ANY person, and 2.) How to determine someone’s likely intent b...