Complete each exercise once you’ve read the daily email and completed the daily task.
If you want to download a PDF of the exercises, you’ll find a link at the bottom of this page.
Exercise Day 1
Look at all the sources of words and statements you noted today. Now grade each one by how likely they are to deceive, be truthful, manipulate or hide information.
For me that list would look like
Mother – truthful
Kids – sometimes deceive, often hide
Social media – deceive and manipulate
News interviews – politicians manipulate, witnesses truthful
Customer complaints rep – deceive
Exercise Day 2
Look at your list of all the times you employed deception today. Do you notice anything about the words you used when you were deceiving? Maybe you don’t, after all that’s why you’re doing this training!
Were there any particular words or phrases you employed? Or certain verbal tactics you used to avoid discussing certain subject?
Exercise Day 3
Look at your list of all the times you were in automatic mode versus manual mode.
Did you slip up in automatic mode and say something you didn’t mean to?
Did you notice long pauses, or stutters and corrections when you were in manual mode?
Exercise Day 4
Think of all the things that didn’t go your way today. Kids acting up? Bad traffic? Having to deal with difficult people? Weather awful? Unexpected expenditure? Think of the all.
Now write (but don’t post!) a social media post informing your friends and followers you had a the best day ever.
What would you write, how hard did you find it? Now look at your post from the perspective of both a friend and a stranger – how would they know your post wasn’t true?
Exercise Day 5
Look at one of the uses of “never” that you noted today. Did that person really mean strictly “not ever at any time” or were they being more qualified than that?
Don’t have an example of your own? Try this one from Lance Armstrong “I have never doped”.
Exercise Day 6
What are your thoughts on this question and answer:
Q: Can you tell us about the meal that you cooked?
A: I’m so devastated by what’s happened by the loss of Don and… Don is still in the hospital, the loss of Ian and Heather and Gail who are some of the best people that I’ve ever met.
Exercise Day 7
What’s going on with these answers
Detective: Did a female point a gun at you?
Sheri: You know who she is. I know you do. You know who she is. I know you do.
Interviewer: Do you understand why he feels that way though as far as the girlfriend is concerned?
Scott: Well certainly I, you know, eh, it was an inappropriate thing um .. and I had never lied to Dennis.
Exercise Day 8
Look at some of the answers you noted today that included delays at the start. Ask yourself two questions. Once the delay was over, were they successful in having the subject of the question changed slightly? and in the delay or in the answer was they a bit of stuttering and stammering?
Exercise Day 9
What do you make of the use of the word “well” in this exchange?
Q: So Mr. A, how’d you miss the call 17 seconds later?
A: Well, my wife was in the room with me. And we were hanging out and I never got the second call from him. So I’m not sure whe- what time he called I’m not sure what I was doing at that second, but I don’t know.
Q: But it didn’t go to voicemail?
A: Well, I didn’t get a voicemail from him. No.
Q: So it didn’t go to voicemail?
A: Well, I don’t know that- I didn’t- don’t know that it didn’t go to voicemail. I just know that I didn’t receive a voicemail from him.
And using everything we’ve learned on question answering, what do you make of this?
Q: Were you arrested for human trafficking? What happened?
A: Yeah, I was not arrested. So what happened is I suffered from a case of swatting. It’s very popular with people who are large on the internet many large YouTubers have been swatted. It’s where you call the police and you say somebody has a gun or there’s a hostage situation and the SWAT team arrives.
Exercise Day 10
What do you think are the motivations behind these uses of just?
I’m just gonna send you a few thoughts
I just want to say thank you for sharing that with me.
The three of you guys together, it’s unbelievable. Talk about energy, just a force.
I just wanted you to know that I didn’t need that
I’m just really looking forward to spending time together
I’m excited to have a creative partner in that with you, and, it’s just really, it’s just really exciting
I’m just still kind of blown away that this is the industry that we’re in and that you’ve experienced that as a woman
I just haven’t had a chance to send it to you
I just know that this can be really, really special
Now, when I tell you they all came from the same person, in one single message, how does that affect your thoughts?
Exercise Day 11
What do you make of these uses of the “honestly” concept
“It honestly amazes me we’re even talking. I don’t want to be somebody’s fall guy.”
“The only thing I thought you guys were gonna ask me about, which I was gonna be honest anyway, are the scratch marks on his back”
“Q: You’ve talked to them extensively about your observations and what your story or your version is that right?
A: To be honest, not extensively – speaking about it is very painful and difficult.”
“I would give them my deepest sympathy. That’s all.. I could do. Which is the honest truth you know.”
“Q: Can you think of anyone that would want her dead?
Honestly, no. It doesn’t make sense why anybody would want to hurt her it just … it it there’s no reason why and she’s, she’s an angel to me.. she’s just.. pure good, you know?”
Exercise Day 12
What do you detect in these words?
“The only thing like I said, I don’t know if alcohol has anything to do with it, but we’ve had a bottle of wine.”
“But like I said, I don’t believe anyone in this group would ever hurt anyone like this”
“She was gonna finish cleanin’ up, like I said she was moppin’ the kitchen floor”
“Like I said, I’m not against removing the video, and I care what you think.”
Exercise Day 13
Do you spot story-selling evidence in this statement
As a point of clarification to facts previously reported, Moriah Wilson and I had a brief romantic relationship from late October-early November 2021 that spanned a week or so while Wilson was visiting Austin. At the time, she and I had both recently ended relationships. She returned to her home in California and about a month later, Kaitlin Armstrong and I reconciled and resumed our relationship.
Since then I often saw Mo at cycling events, and always in public settings. We both competed in Bentonville, AR, Stillwater, and Monterrey CA. We also met for a 4 hour training ride in Santa Cruz after the Sea Otter Classic in Monterrey.
After our brief relationship in October of 2021, we were not in a romantic relationship, only a platonic and professional one. It was not my intention to pursue along an auxiliary romantic relationship that would mislead anyone. Moriah and I were both leaders in this lonely, niche sport of Cycling, and I admired her greatly and considered her a close friend. I am deeply grieving her loss.
Exercise Day 14
What could be hidden, if anything, in the following jumps in time
“Nicole called me when she was at the door, and that’s when I came home, and then walked in the house and nothing just vanished”
“Burke and I sat down and tried to put together one of his little toys for a little while just because he wanted to and then he went off to bed”
“I took him out, I tried doing CPR, and then I called Dave, and then I called you guys”
“I looked down to check a work email. And the next thing I know, I hear- see the truck, rolling backwards into the ditch.”
Exercise Day 15
You’ve got half-way! To celebrate have a look at this extract from an interview. How much of what you have learned so far can you spot in it?
Q: I know that law-enforcement officials have told me that you won’t take a lie detector test, that you’ve wavered back and forth on that – why?
A: Well let me say this about the investigation: I gave you two times earlier uh 9:30 and 10:30 when the dog was returned here. Investigators on both sides law enforcement and private have asked me not to comment any more about times about conversations they have with the police about the possible polygraph, you know tests if I’ve taken or if not and they’re uh you know things surrounding the investigation so that it can be clear so I’m simply not going to comment about those things.
I’m not gonna comment if I have or have not taken a polygraph with the police.
Q: The life-insurance policy why take one out on Laci 250,000?
A: We have life insurance policies in place that were established when we bought this home that you’re in right now two years ago. There was no life insurance policy taken out uh recently as has been reported in the National Enquirer, the dubious source of you know, alien information as well.
And in this statement here:
Well he’d fallen asleep in my arms, so I wrapped him up in a blanket and I lay him in the family room, put him in the playpen to sleep. And he slept for a little
while. In the meantime I’d woken Brendan up and given him a snack. And then Matthew actually woke up on his own after a little while. So I decided I’d try and feed him a bottle, which I usually did after his nap. And again he didn’t want it, he was crying, pushing it away and screaming – he just didn’t want it. So I decided to give up on that and asked Brendan if he would wait for me in the family room while I went and changed Matthew’s nappy and I put him in his crib, so that I could go and dispose of the nappy and wash my hands. I was a couple of minutes doing that.
Exercise Day 16
Have a look at the following lines, they all describe the same action but use different pronouns. What do you think could cause the differences?
We went shopping this afternoon
Jane and I went shopping this afternoon.
Jane went shopping with me this afternoon
I went shopping with Jane this afternoon
I went shopping this afternoon with Jane
Jane and I did our shopping this afternoon
Exercise Day 17
Can you spot the dropped pronoun, and what it suggests here:
And we can do that during the day and unfortunately at night.. don’t know what to do and the grief hits and it’s unbearable but you-you also have to recognize that Laci is hurting worse than any of us… she’s the one that’s not with her family, she’s the one that we need to find and bring home … that gives you focus
And here?
She eats right when she wakes up, otherwise she gets sick, ’cause she’s pregnant. Ah, I laid around in bed longer, I got up at I don’t know, 8 o’clock probably or so. Ah, showered and um we were watchin’ her favorite show, Martha Stewart. Watched a little bit of that.
Exercise Day 18
What do you make of these answers?
Q: When you return to Boulder, you will sit down with the Boulder police?
JOHN: Oh absolutely. Absolutely.
Q: Have you ever zipped him up in anything jokingly or not?
A: Is it something I normally do? Absolutely not
Q: So in your mind, did you prevent him from attacking you?
A: Absolutely. Split second decision.
Exercise Day 19
What do you think actually happened from these descriptions?
“The fact that the clerk came into the jury room on multiple occasions and basically gave us her opinion, I don’t think that was fair at all”
“The cops came up by my house and they asked me if she was out here and then they asked me what time.. around two, two-thirty, that’s what she mostly comes out you know two-two-thirty.. sometimes – there was one time was at three o’clock.”
“I said well, we’re gonna have breakfast. I made her some toast and she had toast and then she wanted a sausage roll because she’s always eating sausage rolls. Eh..eh.. basically and she was sitting and she doesn’t take her washing up out so I took her washing up out. Erm just started doing a bit of washing up in the kitchen.”
“I had got dressed and was on my way to the kitchen to make some coffee, and we have a back staircase from the bedroom areas, and I always come down that staircase, and I am usually the first one down.”
“Well, I always go and check with the jury if it’s round supper time, and I did what I usually normally do and I went and checked with our bailiff Bill Polk, and he went to go check with the forelady and that’s what he came back and told me that she said. I said okay, and that was… it weren’t long after that.”
Exercise Day 20
What do you think is behind the move to a general answer half way through this extract.
“There was no apprehension, no weird feelings there, no upsetness. There was no nervousness about them. They weren’t afraid of anybody. There was nobody following them or following us.
There was absolutely nothing about that ride that was different or abnormal. They were just typical sorority girls, talking away and half the time they don’t pay a whole lot of attention to us drivers. We’re just kind of doing our thing.”
Do you spot, and can you explain the move to general here?
“Unimaginably, in the years that have passed I have had to endure the unimaginable passing of my future wife and the pathetic and despicable attempts to desecrate my reputation and her privacy by creating a narrative that embraces lies, distortions and falsehoods in order to avoid the truth. Mental illness is very real and has many victims.”
Exercise Day 21
What do you make of the tense use by this person telling a story here:
When I went back, to my apartment … I found the front door open,. And then progressively found other things like,, spots of blood in the bathroom, and faeces in the other bathroom.
No one was home, which was also, like, a first. I knew that one of my roommates, was at a party the previous night. My other roommate, I didn’t know that she was on business in Rome, but she was on business with Rome.
I just don’t understand, like maybe what if something happened like there and you’re starting to try to put things together in your mind like there’s there’s blood in that bathroom and there’s then faeces in the toilet.
I don’t even know if she is here, but it’s weird to me that her door is locked. And so I asked him to try to kick it in. Indeed, I even tried to see if I could see into her window.
Exercise Day 22
What do you make from this exchange in a police interview? You will have to call on more than your learning today to get a full and fair conclusion.
Q: There’s also a scratch on like the back of his neck, going straight across.
A: I have no idea what that’s from.
Q: They definitely occurred, the night leading up to when he died
A: The only thing I thought you guys were gonna ask me about, which I was gonna be honest anyway, are the scratch marks on his back. Everything else, I had no idea what it is, no idea what it is. Nonetheless, I had my son over the house too.
Q: He also had, like on the left side of his forehead. He had bruising and on his head, his skull.
A: I have no idea,
Q: As if something hit him.
A: I have not touched him. I have not touched him.
Exercise Day 23
What’s your take on where the truth appears in this statement?
Well…um… Monday morning we took her to school. We dropped her off close to school, across the street from a church which is very- it’s right next to the school. Um. She crossed the street..um.. and walked to school- what we thought walked to school. Um. My boyfriend who drove her to school walk- drove away at that point… um… it was seen on video footage that she hung out in the parking lot of the church for a few minutes and then got up and walked towards the school. But she never made it. Not walk from th- and that was around 9am when she got up, eh… she never made it to school after that. Um It’s right next to the school. I don’t know why she didn’t make it. I don’t know if something happened on her walk along the way or she got taken, but she never made it.
Q: And that was the last anyone’s seen of her or heard from her?
Yes. Um. I went to pick her up after school. Um… and she wasn’t there. Um… so I started driving around, try-maybe thinking she took a walk. Maybe she decided to walk to my mom’s o-office which is pretty close to the school as well. Drove around and I didn’t see anything. I drove back to school. The school was closed. I emailed one of her teachers, they confirmed that she was absent all day. At that point is when I called 911 because I realised something was truly wrong.
Exercise Day 24
What do you make of the lists in these statements?
“We are overwhelmed by the help of the public and the community”
“I was at the mall yesterday and the government is lying. There were no kids fighting. Everyone started panicking because these grey creatures were walking around.”
“Oh it’s been absolutely terrible for me as it is for everyone. I mean you see us in press and the raw emotion that’s out there and the grief and the frustration.. you know we go through a range of emotions from anger to frustration to grief. For me, it comes at different times during the day.”
“Wow! 2022…What a year! And yet, we are still here and together! Let’s make 2023 the best one yet! We are the authors of our lives…courage, love, perseverance, compassion, and joy. Love, Jennie”
Exercise Day 25
Here’s a couple of compound questions and the answers given. What do you deduce?
Q: Can you be a little bit more specific about the sadness she was going through, was there an argument?
A: No, no, just her past. You know, we’re believers and I think there was some issues that she had, you know, mentioned to me about, you know, just her past and things that she had done and being… you know
I don’t think that she… God obviously forgives everybody for their sins. That’s, you know, that’s where we go off. I think she had a hard time believing herself and for forgiving herself. For things in her past you know, and I just….she was dark, just some darkness. You know…
Q: Once he retracted his hand, do you remember zipping the bag up up some? What did you do in relation because he was upside down at that point?
A: Yes
Exercise Day 26
Here are some statements in the negative. What do you think they tell us about the focus of the person giving them?
“Everything looked completely normal. So, I did not think there’s been a break in”
“I never heard her say anything negative about anybody she was just a good person”
“I do not follow the rantings of Richard or failed comedians like him”
“You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that didn’t care for him”
Exercise Day 27
Where could personal definitions come into these statements?
“Richard and I have never even been friends or even in a relationship”
“During that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual”
“I was innocent the first time they arrested me. But I don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve done nothing wrong”
“As I re-review everything that actually happened as opposed to what is being alleged – I don’t accept there was any abuse. To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.”
Exercise Day 28
Here’s a transcript of a phone call, the context is clear from the words but once you’ve read it, what do you think is missing? (the parts in brackets are not said by the person to analyse)
Hello? This is Mrs. Adelson. Is this Sammy?
Sammy. Okay. My grandchildren have my phone before, so.
Can you hear me? I’m Mrs. Adelson.
(Yes, yes)
My grandchildren have my phone before, so that’s why I just thought that you’d call. Hello? O
This is my problem. You approached me on Halton Road.
You handed me an article from the newspaper about my ex-son-in-law. You told me I need to call you and help your friend who was in prison. Now, at the time you did that, I didn’t understand what you were talking about.
I didn’t call you back. Then you mail me a threatening letter. Then you send me a text message to my phone that says I’m not taking you seriously.
So, I am taking you seriously. And I really want you to listen to me. I have to tell you, and this is important.
I have been so stressed out. I have spoken to 10 or 12 people who are close friends of mine, telling them about this and basically picking their brains and asking them what I should do because I don’t know your friend who is in jail. I don’t…
You mentioned a name. I don’t even know his name. I’ve never spoke to him.
I don’t know what he looks like. I’ve never met him. I’m sorry your friend’s in jail, but I don’t know what that has to do with me.
(You know exactly what it has to do with. You know exactly what it has to do. Listen to me carefully.)
Listen to me. Listen to me. You just gotta listen to me.
You need to ask your friend who this person looks like, what their name is, something, because I know there’s a big reward out there. And if you need money for your friend, that’s the way to get it. I mean, I’m asking you nicely.
I don’t know who he is. I am out of the loop. It is not me.
If I can help, I will help. I mean, that’s what I think.
(Just like I told you that day, we know that your family had a problem up north. We know that that problem was seen terribly about a year and a half, two years ago. And we know that Katie has been taken care of.
It has been taken care of. Now, my brother in jail, we were in Broward together. He told me the whole thing, and he hasn’t been taken care of.
You know. Now, all that’s being asked for is 5K. That’s all we’re asking for is the 5K.
And he told me everything, and I know everything. I know who’s involved. I know everything.
And I’ll get the 100K for myself. All I ask is to send the 5K. Everybody knows what’s going on.)
I don’t need to know. You’re saying everyone knows. I know I lost my ex-son-in-law.
I did not have anything to do with it. That’s why I said, ask him what…
(He told me everything when we were in jail. He told me everything and who was involved. I know everything.)
Well, I don’t. That’s the problem. I am telling you, it’s not me.
It’s not me. I have had a year of aggravation, a year and a half of aggravation over this. My daughter, my grandchildren.
It is not me. And when I asked my friends, what do they think? They said, well, this person needs to get a description of you because of what you look like.
It’s not me. I don’t know who caused this. It wasn’t me.
I mean, I don’t know…
(Just like that day when I talked to you, this is not going away. This is not going to go away.
This is what he told me, everything. He wasn’t being taken care of. He needed the 5K.
Spent 5K, that’s all we were asking for.)
I don’t know who Stato is.
(We know you don’t know who Stato is, but you know who Katie is. And you know the contacts Katie has. OK?
You know who Katie is. And you know that Katie has somebody that knows Stato. And they took care of a problem for you people.
That’s just the bottom line. The bottom line is, you know that they took care of Katie and her people. Nobody’s taking care of Stato.
I know you don’t know who Stato is. No, I… But we know who all of you are.
And this ain’t going away.)
Here’s what you need to do. You need to go…
(Don’t tell me what to do. I know what to do. And I’m doing it.)
Yes, this is not making any sense. I mean, if you want the money, you should get it from the police.
They can give you a whole lot more than you’re asking me for money for someone. I can’t do this. I have had too much stress and too much aggravation from this, and I don’t know what you are talking about.
I just don’t know. I just don’t know.
I just think, instead of asking me, you should get the money from the police. There’s a lot of money out there, and I know, if you think you know who this is, then go ahead and do it, because I know it isn’t me.
I know it isn’t me, and I can’t take this kind of level of stress. I just can’t. I know I didn’t do anything.
Exercise Day 29
How many data points can you spot in this transcript? To get the most possible this exercise should take at least one hour.
Q: She says that you called her on the 24th December 24 and told her you were with your parents in Maine
A: Okay
Q: Is that true?
A: Nah…. This is… I called her informed her about Laci’s disappearance
Q: On the 24th of December?
A: No, no I did not it was a few days after that called her and told her I was married
Q: She claims, let me just finish, she just claims and you called her on the
24th told her that you were going to Maine you’re visiting your family Maine
and then you were going to Brussels.
A: Gloria I’m not going to waste what little media time we have and in this
forum with.. you know this is a short newscast I don’t know how much of these words you’re going to use or not. I’m not gonna waste that by defending myself or talking about irrelevant things.
It’s better served if we talk about what happened and where’s Laci, so the facts are that we know that on Christmas Eve I left the house here around 9:30 she was here in the home – okay that’s a fact that has to out there because it’s been reported erroneously that I saw her leave the house okay, she was in the house it’s one thing we know. Second thing we know is that the dog was returned to our yard with its leash on at 10:30 by a neighbor. Those are the two things we know about her disappearance.
Hopefully those can help some people. There are things that we need to get out there are the tip lines which is the Modesto police tip line two oh nine
three four two six one six six and also one eight six six Laci info L A C I info and that’s tip line for people who have talked to the police if they talk to them please call that tip line if you saw her that day, have you seen her since or there’s something you think is important in the neighborhood we want to be very specific. The other big push that we need is Laci Peterson dot com. People can go there and print off the flyers and distribute those in every medical center and bus stop high-traffic area in the nation cuz it could be the next flyer that brings her home to our family.
Q: I know that you want to find Laci and the second thing you want to do is clear yourself from suspicion correct? I mean that is – you want the focus back on Laci and not on you
A: I want people looking for Laci cuz they’re not doing that right now and that’s why I’m sitting now with you in hopes that people will go, you know what if I …think he had some involvement if I don’t think he had some involvement that doesn’t matter because Laci is what matters and she’s out there missing and she needs to be home with her families.
So I don’t care to defend myself, I don’t care what people think of me, you know, as I’ve said question my moral character if you want to, but look at your heart, think of Laci her picture, baby and make the effort to bring her home and that’s – that’s the simple reality- that’s a simple thing we need to do just – you know – em think whatever you want of me …. long as you’re out there and you’re comfortable yourself that you’re doing what you need to be doing to find Laci and bring her home.
Q: I know that law-enforcement officials have told me that you won’t take a lie detector test, that you’ve wavered back and forth on that – why?
A: Well let me say this about the investigation: I gave you two times earlier uh 9:30 and 10:30 when the dog was returned here. Investigators on both sides law enforcement and private have asked me not to comment any more about times about conversations they have with the police about the possible polygraph, you know tests if I’ve taken or if not and uh they’re uh you know things surrounding the investigation so that it can be clear so
I’m simply not going to comment about those things.
I’m not gonna comment if I have or have not taken a polygraph with the police
Q: The life-insurance policy why take one out on Laci 250,000?
A: We have life insurance policies in place that were established when we bought this home that you’re in right now two years ago. There was no life insurance policy taken out uh recently as has been reported in the National Enquirer, the dubious source of you know, alien information as well.
Q: I know that a neighbor saw you removing things on the 24th you mentioned this morning that it was umbrellas
A: Yeah we have some eh large umbrellas for the backyard pool area, market umbrellas I think is a term for them.
Q: Why would you store those in the winter?
A: It started to rain so I was gonna store them. Just like you asked why would I store them I was taking them from the pool to store.
Q: Officials of mine had told me sources have mentioned to me that there were
cement bags that were in the storage area and apparently a few of them were empty?
A: Sure.
Q: Explain that.
A: Well I could take you out in the backyard and show you all the cement
work and brick work that we’ve done to this home and you’d find, you know, cement bags around here.
Q: So this was something that- it was home remodeling or what were you doing with the cement
A: Yeah and again we’re we’re starting to go into areas that investigators have asked me not to comment about so we should probably, you know, simply put the brakes on at that point.
I don’t mind commenting about the life insurance policy emmmm, but I you know I don’t want to give specific times or other information that could jeopardize eh what they find is valuable information in finding Laci
Q: Okay I know that you mentioned on Good Morning America that it wouldn’t surprise you if they found blood …
A: Sure
Q: In your vehicle’s explain why..
A: Well take a look at my hand and you can see, you know, cuts here on my knuckles, numerous scars. I-I work on farms, I work with machinery um I know I cut my knuckle that day.
Q: On what day?
A: On Christmas Eve
Q: Doing what?
A: Reaching in the toolbox of my truck and then into the eh pocket on the door I cut open my knuckle and there’s … a blood stain on the door … on the drivers side.
Q: Sources of mine have mentioned that you also when you came home on the 24th did some laundry you washed your clothes. Do you understand why that may look a little suspicious to the average person? Why would he come home and do his laundry?
A: Well em the average guy that goes out in the ocean fishing gets some salt water on him, comes home wet… what you gonna do with your wet salt water clothes?