How Words Work with Jack Fox

A few episodes ago Jack Fox promised to keep noticing the words being used around him and share what he found. This is that episode. An expert witness who paused for 17 seconds in open court and what that taught Jack about silence. A box of chocolate and the one word that told him everything he needed to know. Three practical tips for remembering names and why using them matters more than most peo...

Last week Jack Fox gave you three things that turn a conversation into an argument. This week, three more. The question that sounds like curiosity but is really a way of steering the conversation somewhere else. The hypothetical that takes you away from what's actually happening. And the everyone thinks so move that makes you feel outnumbered before you've said a word. In this episode of How Words...

Arguments rarely start with a raised voice. They start with a small move. A question that doesn't get answered. A point that gets taken somewhere it was never meant to go. The same thing said again and again as if repetition will make it land. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox uses a political interview clip to show exactly what those moves look like in a real conversation, and gives you...

Jack Fox has spent years studying how criminals and people under pressure use language. He teaches these lessons every week. And he gets them wrong too. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox shares four honest stories of trying to apply the tips from recent episodes in real conversations. What he attempted, what actually happened, and what he took from each one. Because the gap between knowi...

Jack Fox has spent years studying the words of thousands of criminals and people under pressure. Donald Miller has spent years studying the words of the most effective marketing messages in the world. They have never worked together. They have arrived at exactly the same conclusion. Simple, clear and repeatable beats clever, detailed and comprehensive every time. In this episode of How Words Work,...

Jack Fox has spent years studying the words of thousands of criminals and people under pressure. And one of the most consistent things he has found is that the people who give themselves away do so because someone was truly listening to them. Not waiting for their turn to speak. Actually listening. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox makes the case that listening is the most underrated com...

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 considerably more believable. Someone replied with this. I'm more aware that I have a habit of over-explaining. Now, how do I fix the last 49 years of doing it? That question stopped Jack Fo...

I've spent years studying the words of thousands of criminals and people under pressure. And in all that time one of the most consistent things I've found is that the words someone chooses are the words that matter to them. Change those words and you've changed the meaning, at least in their head. In this episode of How Words Work, I look at two things that make the person you're talking to feel g...

I've spent years studying the words of thousands of criminals and people under pressure. And one of the most revealing moments in any conversation isn't the answer someone gives. It's what happens in the seconds before. Do they let the question finish? Do they start with the answer or manage it first? Do they say I don't know when they don't know? Sign up to Credible, Jack's weekly newsletter: htt...

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 because those people are deceptive. Because they're nervous. Because they lack confidence in that moment. Because they're trying to please the person they're talking to. And the pers...

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 attorney notices, then the judge notices and what Dr Mack has to say gets lost because he sounds like he's evading answering the question. Sign up to Credible, Jack's weekly newsletter: ht...

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 hearing it. And here is the thing most people don't know. Every one of us has been lied to, manipulated, let down by someone who turned out not to be who we thought. And our brain fil...

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 softeners. Basically. Really. Normally. Usually. Typically. Every one of these words confesses something the speaker never intended to admit. In this episode of How Words Work, I sho...

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 don't. You've always known. Today I'm going to prove it. I'm going to play you two real 911 calls. No labels. No clues. Just two men talking. And I want you to notice which one you tr...

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 situation and nothing about what they asked. This is one of the most common ways people undermine their own credibility without realising it. And it gets worse the more nervous or u...

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 life. Good person. Soulmate. Every word calculated to make the audience feel warmly towards her. And the audience felt nothing. Because when you say what you think people want to h...

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 page and an audience who came in open minded and ready to listen. By the time the interview was over, most of them weren't buying her innocence. In this episode of How Words Work, J...

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 voice and economy of words. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox takes Kabir Sehgal's brilliant Harvard Business Review piece on military email writing and shows why those thre...

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 more not guilty than not guilty. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox breaks down why people add convincing language to their own statements when nobody has asked them to, why...

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 once. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox breaks down the four mechanical moves that turn an apology into a performance: erasing the victim, distancing the act, becoming th...

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 tracks. Not a criminal case. Not a courtroom cross examination. A thread on X from an appellate court judge who has read thousands of legal briefs and distilled what separates the ones th...

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 time is amplified and exposed in a way that ordinary conversation never quite manages. In this episode of How Words Work with Jack Fox, Jack takes everything the series has covered and...

I've spent years studying the words of murderers, fraudsters, manipulators and coercive controllers. And one thing shows up in almost every single case. The people who are hiding something use more words than they need to. Not fewer. More. Because when you have the truth on your side you don't need to build a case for it. You just say it. But when you don't, you reach for every persuader, every em...

When someone tells you the truth your mind builds a picture automatically. You don't think about it. You don't try. The picture just forms because the material is real. But there are conversations where the picture won't come. Where you're listening carefully and following along but nothing quite lands. Like trying to build something out of fog. That feeling, that inability to picture what you're...

You came into that conversation with something you needed to say. You knew what it was. You were ready. And somewhere in the middle of it the conversation went somewhere else entirely. Someone moved it without you noticing until it was too late. That's your agenda being taken from you. In this episode of How Words Work with Jack Fox, Jack breaks down exactly how this happens. From Russell Brand's...