Thesiswhisperer Pod

It's the final episode of Severance, and it's really fucking tense! For our final show this season, it's just us: Outie Anitra and Innie Inger, talking about episode 9. 

So much happened this episode! So many big reveals, and new plot lines opened. Helly has the most Dystopian Cinderella moment, Mark is Ricken's fanboy, Dylan is taking one for the workers collective and Irv only says a single word (but he makes it count). 

We still live in hope for season two - hopefully we won't be in the break room waiting too long!

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

Worker solidarity is the theme of this episode, and in celebration, we invited Anitra's current boss, Geoff Stringer. Don't worry though - he's not going to rat us out to the higher ups.

The team dissect episode: What's for Dinner. This is the episode where Inger had to text Anitra all the way through because it was so damn tense. Plans are made, dreams are broken - most importantly, certain people are at the 'find out' stage of the Fuck Around journey. And we are here for every delicious moment!

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

You'll never look at mandated company fun the same way after this episode, especially when it becomes clear that inter-departmental politics can get its own body count. 

Prof Narelle Lemon, who is now at Edith Cowan University, joins us again to dissect episode seven of Severance. There's so much in this episode - the action is really heating up. Milcheck tries his best to keep a lid on the simmering tensions, and only earns himself a bite from Dylan. There is no Ricken in this episode, but he is till present in his absence. 

Everything seems to be heading in a bad direction - but will worker solidarity win out over corporate oppression? We can't wait to find out.

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

Love is in the air in episode six of Severance, where inter-departmental politics is platonic. Sort of. Maybe. Bert and Irv grow closer, Mark and Helly take the work flirt to the next level and Devon has a mysterious encounter in the local park... 

Anitra's work colleague and future novel co-writer Chris joins us this week to dissect the many Kier mystery kinda-reveals. He also gives us a word to describe that spooky feeling of buildings that should be full of people, but aren't. A word we all need after lockdown for sure.

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

We saved this one for Anitra's co-worker and Director of Digital Experience, Joyce Seitzinger, because it is the infamous "bring-your-baby-goat-to-work" day episode. 

There is also a lot of Ricken in this ep, which gives us an excuse to talk about our favourite academic. Anitra compares Ricken to Yoda while Joyce points out that the comparison works only if Yoda were really really self-involved. Plus, mysterious baby goats.

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

In this episode we are joined by Inger’s ANU colleague and fellow podcaster Will Grant and we are talking about how no one wants to go into the break room. Like, ever. 

We dissect Cobel’s (unasked for) freelancing — ‘wet work’ at Petey’s funeral — and whether or not she is getting any stock options. Will disturbingly points out the ways humans are never very far away from choosing violence.

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

In Episode Three of Severance, work friendships take a dark turn and we discuss it all with Anitra’s ex-and-current-coworker, Senior Learning Designer Miriam Renoyldson. 

Anitra mangles the word 'cishertrowhitemaletriarchy', which Miriam then neatly illustrates by pointing out that all the five founders of the University of Melbourne Business School were white men named John.

We discuss how corporate bingo cards is the ultimate act of symbolic violence, and Inger warns about buying white shirts to power dress at work.

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

We focus on Episode Two of Severance and are joined once again by our friend and academic wellness expert Professor Narelle Lemon.

We delve into the topic of corporate gaslighting and how the work of MDR is the best description ever of analyzing student experience survey results.

Along the way we touch on the unique grief caused by corporate restructures and deconstruct the strategies used to give purpose to purposeless work.

In much the same way as Ricken outs Mark S for being severed, Inger outs Anitra’s secret past as CD cleaning kit seller of the month.

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

Welcome to episode one of Academics talk about Severance': the Apple TV show that has a lot to say about Work. We hope this series helps you cope with fact that season two seems to be infinitely delayed, or maybe just stuck on the Severance Floor.

For our first episode, we reunite the band from Academics Talk About the Chair (at least some of us) and delve into Episode One: Helly's sub-optimal onboarding experience.

We are joined by our friend and expert on academic wellness, Professor Narelle Lemon, of Explore and Create Co. We explore the concept of emotional labor, the unique experience that is university onboarding, and the societal fear of older women. 

Inger talks about waffle slabs a bit too much, while Anitra explains corporate culture building using a ladder, a monkey and a banana.

See you in the break room!

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

Coming soon to this channel, will be a new series of ‘academics talk about…: 

Season one, which you’ll find by scrolling down in this feed, was ‘Academics talk about The Chair’ - the excellent Netflix series about a small liberal arts college starring the wonderful Sandra Oh. 

Academics talk about the chair was a Covid lockdown project that kept me, my sister Anitra, and our two academic friends Narelle and Megan, sane during the insane year. Since 2021 I’ve since kept this podcast feed going as a place for my special projects, most recently, 'Your brain on writing'.

People have been asking for a new recap series ever since we finished Academics talk about the chair, but it wasn’t until Severance came along that we felt moved to do a second season. 

Severance is a dystopian sci-fi series on Apple TV set in an alternative ‘now’ - where workers can opt to have their work self and their home self psychologically split. The severed workers have two selves: an ‘innie’, who is always at work, and an ‘outie’, who is always at home. The innie and the outie occupy a single body, but live in very different worlds. 

The company who Severs its workers is Lumon, a global corporation with a history of having its fingers in many profitable pies. Severance is, perhaps, their attempt to create the perfect worker. But honestly, we’re not quite sure what Lumon actually does. Severance is a TV show with a lot to say about the contemporary workplace, modern slavery and the impossibility of worklife balance.

I’m joined, again, in this new series by my Twin Sister: Anitra Nottingham. Both of us are obsessed with Severance, and this pod is a chance to share ALL our thoughts and feelpinions about it… 

We’re identical twins who sound eerily alike. We decided one of us is the Innie and the other is the Outie (but you’ve have to tune in to find out who is who!). To make the same sounding voice thing a bit weird, and to make the whole series more fun, we’ve invited a current or former workmate along for each episode.

Ironically, in Severance, a show about work, we are never quite sure what the workers are doing as they stare at numbers on their 1970s style monitors, under the glare of fluorescent lights. We’ll talk other forms of work we see being done - emotional work, invisible work, articulation work, managing up, down and sideways. 

We’ll zoom in on the office politics in Severance and connect it to our own histories of workplace dramas. We’ll try to sympathise with management, and see if we can name employee of the week, or rat out the union organisers. 
And, because we are obsessed with the only academic character in the show, Ricken, we have a section called Ricken Watch, where we report on his doings for that episode. Finally we wallow in the beauty of the show, singling out our favourite architectural, fashion and sound design moments.

If you haven’t watched Severance yet, pop it on your playlist. There are heaps of spoilers coming up! Academic workers talk about Severance will be dropping s

Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now).

Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show!

For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website.

You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot
You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer