The following is a transcript from an episode of my podcast, People Who Read People, where I interview a Portland, Oregon antifa/BLM protester who intellectually defends the violent, militant aspects of the Portland protests and riots, and who talks about reasons for physically fighting with rightwing groups.

For more info about the topics discussed, and for links to the episode on podcast platforms, see the episode’s page on my site. If you enjoy this episode, you may also enjoy this follow-up episode: an interview with Omar Wasow, who’s done research on the effects of violent protests and riots.

Transcript with timestamps:

Zach Elwood (00:00:00): Welcome to the People Who Read People podcast. I’m your host, Zachary Elwood. In this episode, recorded August 31st, 2020, I interview a self-described Antifa, who has been regularly attending the recent anti-cop protests in Portland, Oregon. These protests are sometimes also referred to as Black Lives Matter protests. The person I’m interviewing will defend some of the more violent, aggressive aspects of these protests, including setting fires, physically fighting with or throwing things at cops, and resisting arrest. …

I’m using this page as a place to compile work that I’ve done related to researching and investigating deceptive online activity, including fake news and fake accounts.

Who am I?

My name is Zachary Elwood. My main claim to fame is that I’ve written some books on poker behavior (aka “poker tells”). You can find me on Twitter at @apokerplayer or at Facebook.com/zachelwoodbehavior. I also have a psychology-themed podcast called People Who Read People (summaries and links here).

I’ve also done some research into online deception, fake news, and fake accounts. Some of my work has been featured in major news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Buzzfeed. On this page is a synopsis of the work I’ve done and press mentions I’ve gotten. …

This will be a compilation and analysis of the best and most logical anti-vegan arguments. The arguments examined are:

• The morality of a behavior is decided by society.
• A vegan diet is, or may be, unhealthy.
• Plant-based agriculture still causes harm to animals.
• Not everyone can be vegan; it’s an elitist stance.
• Veganism is an arbitrary ethical line, or a slippery slope.
• The world is a tough, cruel place.

A couple upfront clarifications:

• In this piece, I’ll use ‘veganism’ to mean: “a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as is practically possible, exploitation of animals for food, clothing, or other non-necessary purposes.” …

Note: spoilers exist for both “Joker” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”

I’ve read quite a few reviews of Todd Phillips’ Joker movie and none of them talked about what I saw as the most important elements of the movie — the things that made the movie thought-provoking and emotionally affecting.

The first level of basic misunderstanding about Joker: many people seem to think it’s a superhero story or a villain-origin story, when it’s clearly not. To me, the movie is subversive. One could call it an “anti-superhero movie”; it seems to mock our cultural pre-occupation with twisted villains or anti-heroes. It mocks our tendency to find meaning in what are typically superficial character depictions. …

Many people are looking for ways they can help fight the lies, propaganda, and fake news that enable people like Trump to gain power and find support. This piece will be about some ideas for ways that anyone, anywhere, can help combat these lies.

First, a little about me: I’m Zachary Elwood. I’ve written some books on poker tells and psychology, and I’ve also done some independent research into fake/deceptive social media accounts and propaganda. My work on these subjects has been featured in major news outlets, include the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Buzzfeed.

Summary of idea: Talking one-on-one with Trump supporters on Facebook

So here’s a summary of the…

This piece proposes ideas for solving these two problems:

• How can someone, as an individual doing online fundraising (or some other person-to-person transaction) fairly easily establish their credibility?
• How can someone, who is considering donating to an individual’s online fundraiser (or considering some other person-to-person financial transaction) feel more comfortable that that transaction is legitimate?

These are questions I’ve pondered a good amount over the last few years. I thought about it when I was writing my own GoFundMe (for time spent investigating a prominent fake news creator) and also when I’ve been asked to donate to fundraisers of people who I only know online. …

In this piece I’ll examine the almost-certainly deceptive conservative Twitter account @emilia_suze, who claims to have a PhD and be an “AI tech inventor” and who, I assert, uses a fake name and fake photo. Not only does this account have a pretty sizable Twitter following (31.7K at time of writing), her tweets were also featured in three separate news/opinion pieces (more on that later).

I’ve spent a good amount of my free time studying fake and deceptive social media accounts. A couple of the more prominent things I’ve worked on:

• My research on foreign American-impersonating Facebook accounts has been mentioned in the New York Times and the Washington Post. …

I wrote this piece September 5th 2018, for my poker tells blog, but decided to repost it here. I did this analysis in preparation for an interview of Mark McClish, a former US Marshal who wrote two books on statement analysis, for my “People Who Read People” podcast.

Here’s the video with a few thoughts on it below:

At 2:50 of video:
Watts: “I want those kids back so bad.”

Slightly interesting that he doesn’t say “my kids”. Sometimes pronouns can tell us that a person is distancing themselves from others, or avoiding taking responsibility. …