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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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 that hype always lands as weakness, and the one place where convincing language is genuinely useful. From OJ at his arraignment to your colleague in a meeting to the dating profile that protests too much, you'll learn how to spot the hype, what it's protecting, and how to remove it from your own speech so your words finally carry their own weight.

How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

📩 Jack's weekly newsletter Credible lands every week with one idea you can use straight away. Sign up here: https://jack-fox.kit.com/dfc55f19a6

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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 the protagonist of your own redemption story, and piling on the convincing language. You'll hear exactly how Diddy did all four in less than 70 seconds, and you'll start to spot the same blueprint in workplace apologies, partner apologies, celebrity statements and crisis PR everywhere. By the end you'll know how to hear a real apology and how to give one.

How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

📩 Jack's weekly newsletter Credible lands every week with one idea you can use straight away. Sign up here: https://jack-fox.kit.com/dfc55f19a6

Content note: this episode discusses domestic violence.

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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 that win from the ones that lose into a handful of principles so sharp and so clear that I had to share them.

His name is Judge David Weinzweig. His account is Zen and the Art of Persuasive Writing. And what he wrote for lawyers applies to every single conversation, every email, every difficult discussion you will ever have.

Brevity signals confidence. Adverbs can destroy the arguments they're meant to strengthen. Zombie nouns drain the life from your words. And the best communicators answer the question before the other person knows to ask it.

In this episode of How Words Work with Jack Fox, Jack reads the thread, breaks down each principle and shows you exactly how it sounds in real life.

The thread: https://x.com/zenpersuasion/status/2052003677708468285

The book: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Persuasive-Writing-David-Weinzweig/dp/163905779X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

🎙️ How Words Work with Jack Fox. 📩 Jack's weekly newsletter Credible lands every week with one idea you can use straight away. Sign up here: https://jack-fox.kit.com/dfc55f19a6

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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 shows it happening in real time. The cross examination of Mila Adams in the Stefon Diggs assault case is one of the most instructive pieces of communication under pressure you will ever hear. Not because she lied. But because the patterns in her words, the evasions, the avoidance, the crumb throwing, the failure to answer simple yes or no questions, did something very specific to her credibility. Something the jury heard. Something you're going to hear too.

Diggs was found not guilty. This episode is not about what happened between them. It's about what her words did to her credibility on the stand. And what you can learn from it.

🎙️ How Words Work with Jack Fox. 📩 Jack's weekly newsletter Credible lands every week with one idea you can use straight away. Sign up here: https://jack-fox.kit.com/dfc55f19a6

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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 emotional maximiser, every convincer you can find. And the result is a performance that looks like honesty and sounds like honesty but leaves something uneasy in the person hearing it.

In this episode of How Words Work with Jack Fox, Jack breaks down the language of persuasion. How Erin Patterson, convicted of murdering three people with poisoned mushrooms, used words like devastated, loved, fathom and absolutely in a performance of grief designed to convince you of something she needed you to believe. How the same tactics show up in everyday conversations when someone builds an architecture of busyness to avoid answering a simple question. And why the most trustworthy thing you can ever do in any conversation is say less.

This is the episode that ties the whole series together. Because the antidote to everything we've covered in these eight weeks is the same thing. Economy of language. Own it, say it, stop.

🎙️ How Words Work with Jack Fox. 📩 Jack's weekly newsletter Credible lands every week with one idea you can use straight away. Sign up here: https://jack-fox.kit.com/dfc55f19a6

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