24: Decipher people like the FBI: What Every Body Is Saying by Joe Navarro Made You Think

 
In reality, the way animals, including humans, react to danger occurs in the following order: freeze, flight, fight. If the reaction really were fight or flight, most of us would be bruised, battered, and exhausted much of the time.
In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I dissect What Every Body Is Saying by Joe Navarro. In this book Joe shares his 25+ years experience conducting interrogations as an FBI agent, and reveals behaviors and reactions we can’t control under stress. He gives very actionable tips to understand if someone is lying, if someone is happy to chat with us, if we should close that business deal, or how to improve our public speaking skills.
We cover a wide range of topics, including:
Heuristics for understanding when others are uncomfortable or under stress. When we can confidently suspect on someone, and when not. How our body reacts when threatened. The human body reactions, explained part by part. Rips and warning when trying to unmask deception. And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of What Every Body Is Saying by Joe Navarro
You can also listen on Google Play Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, or in any other podcasting app by searching "Made You Think."
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet, as many reactions to stress are innate and a byproduct of evolution, as well as our episode on Elon Musk, an article that analyzes how the man behind Tesla and SpaceX thinks on principles.
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Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show:
Lie To Me TV Show [5:57] Tinder [58:11] Bumble [58:11] Peterson’s Podcast series on Abraham story [57:54] 27, 28, 30, Nat’s article on Easy Keto [37:57] Books mentioned:
What every Body is saying by Joe Navarro Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet [3:36] (book episode) Godel Escher Bach [3:36] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Elon Musk [7:21] (on this podcast) The Way of Zen [15:59] (Nat’s Notes) (Neil’s Notes) (book episode) The Gift of Fear [18:13] Principles [56:45] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Antifragile [57:00] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Amusing Ourselves to Death [57:00] (book episode) (Nat’s Notes) Defining Decade by Meg Jay [58:59] The Denial of Death [1:03:27] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Origin of the Species [1:03:38] Mastery [1:03:38] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Why We Love by Helen Fisher [1:15:06] People mentioned:
Joe Navarro Tai Lopez [0:33] Elon Musk [7:21] (on this podcast) Pepper the Poochon [43:17] Charlie Munger [1:03:38] Jeff Bezos [1:20:12] Show Topics 0:00 – “In order to ensure our survival, the brain’s very elegant response to distress or threats, has taken three forms: freeze, flight, and fight. Like other animal species whose limbic brains protected them in this manner, humans possessing these limbic reactions survived to propagate because these behaviors were already hardwired into our nervous system.”
1:13 – Looking at how the human body reacts to stress and using that to figure out if somebody is lying or better understand emotional and mental state of somebody.
1:38 – Why Nat read this book at college. How Nat, improved his public speaking abilities after reading this book, following a suggestion he received during college.
2:04 – About Joe Navarro’s background as an FBI agent for 25 years. How he was able to include all his experience interrogating and what was suspicious or not in the many cases presented in the book. Example of Joe trying to figure out accomplices of a suspect, that was betrayed by his pupils when put under stress.
3:54 – Reference to Darwin: evolution is the foundation for body unconscious reactions. Behaviors are involuntary because they drive from the limbic system instead than from the frontal cortex. Joe stresses that nobo