Episode one: Brilliant Mistake

It feels like every academic in the world has a hot take on the new Netflix show 'The Chair'.

Opinions are divided, and, in that academic way we know and love, everyone thinks they're right. We’re a bunch of academics in lockdown here in Australia and we're bored, so we decided to make a podcast about The Chair because, well, why not?

We're taking our cue from projects like ‘Doctors watch Grays Anatomy'. In this podcast we compare our experience and knowledge of how a profession works with a fictional account on the screen. Because we are academics, we will recap the episode in painful detail (oh so many spoilers) and tell you what we think is realistic, what is totally fictional and what the best lines in the show were (and why). Finally we will spend a bit of time on the outfits each character is wearing, because we care about that stuff.

We are four, white, female academics located In Australia, who have done various jobs inside academia, but of course, we can’t claim to have experienced everything. As you can tell, none of us are film studies academics, so don’t expect a deep, informed analysis grounded in the literature.

We're interested in other peoples' take on The Chair - we’re dreaming of you film studies people doing your own podcasts (hint hint). In the meantime,  you can write to us and we will include your ideas and opinions in our correspondence section at the end of the show.

We are:

Inger Mewburn: @thesiswhisperer on Twitter and The Thesiswhisperer blog (you can also listen to her other podcast 'On The Reg')

Megan McPherson: @MeganJMcPherson on insta and twitter (where you can also meet her cats Maximum, Dulcie and Mr Fin. ) 

Narelle Lemon:-@rellypops and @wellbeingwhisp1 on Twitter and Instagram - and @rellypops AND @Exploreandcreateco on @Instagram (Narelle and Inger are two of the producers behind the WhisperFest podcast)

Anitra Nottingham - @anitranot on all the things (and identical twin sister of Inger, which is confusing because she sounds EXACTLY the same - you'll just have to roll with it!).

In you'd like to share your own views on The Chair email us on 
academicstalkabouthechair@thesiswhisperer.com

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 inger@thesiswhisperer.com 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