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 hear rather than what is true, the person on the other side always knows. They can't always name it. But they feel it. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox uses Mackenzie's interview to show exactly what people pleasing sounds like, why it never works, and what to say instead. Because the chances are you do this too. Not in a murder trial. But in the conversations that matter to you. And the fix is simple. Say what's inside you, not what you presume someone wants to hear.

How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

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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, Jack Fox breaks down exactly what she said that closed the door on her. Three patterns. All of them things that any of us can fall into when we feel nervous or unconfident. And three simple things you can do instead to make sure your words work for you, not against you.

Credible newsletter: https://jack-fox.kit.com/dfc55f19a6

How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 three rules are accidentally a masterclass in not sounding like someone hiding something. The military got there by trying to be efficient. The same rules also make you sound trustworthy. Break them, and you start to sound like every weak statement Jack has ever pulled apart. By the end of this episode you'll write shorter, clearer, more authoritative emails, and you'll know exactly why the long ones never landed the way you hoped.

Kabir Sehgal's original article: https://kabir.cc/how-to-write-email-with-military-precision/

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