How Words Work with Jack Fox

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 filed that away. It built a library of how those people sounded. Now that library runs in the background of every conversation we have. The moment someone uses one of those patterns, an alarm goes off. Not loudly. But it goes off. The innocent person, the nervous person, the people pleaser. They're triggering that alarm without knowing it exists. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox shows you how to audit your own words, understand what signal they're sending, and decide for yourself whether that signal is one you want to keep paying for. How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

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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 show you exactly what these words are giving away, why suspects and manipulators reach for them, and why you're reaching for them too without realising it. Because when you say basically you're confessing that the full picture is more complicated than what you're sharing. When you say normally you're confessing that exceptions exist. When you say really you're confessing that your certainty isn't as solid as you're presenting. Strip these words out and replace them with the specific true thing. Your sentences will be shorter, more authoritative and more trusted. This is How Words Work with Jack Fox.

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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 trust. Because by the end of this episode you'll understand exactly why you felt what you felt. And you'll know how to make sure every conversation you have builds the kind of credibility that makes people want to say yes to you. This is How Words Work with Jack Fox.

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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 uncomfortable you are. In this episode of How Words Work, Jack Fox uses a clip from Netflix's Maternal Instinct to show exactly what storytelling instead of answering sounds like, why the listener always feels it, and how answering the question first, simply and directly, is one of the most powerful things you can do for your confidence and credibility. How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

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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.

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How Words Work is a weekly podcast with Jack Fox.

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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.

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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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