Episode five: The last bus in town

Inger, Megan, Anitra and Narelle continue their episode by episode forensic  examination of 'The Chair'. This time we're examining episode four: 'The last bus in town'.

We're joined, again, for this episode by Dr Bertha Chin, senior lecturer from the Swinburne University of Technology in Sarawak, Malaysia. Bertha ups our intellectual heft as a scholar of fan studies and Fandom - and huge David Duchovny fan (he even inspired her to do a PhD in the first place!). 

Ji Yoon solves an almost insolvable problem in this episode, but it immediately doesn't matter as she's caught up in the Pembroke Nazi scandal. Yaz is burning bridges and (unbeknownst to Ji Yoon) the older members of the department start to plot a coup. It's getting pretty dark in here... and is Bill the last bus in town as Aunty so wisely says?

Warning - this episode contains a David Duchovny reprising his 'thinking woman's crumpet' moment from the 1990s. Will we swoon? You'll have to listen to find out.

This episode is also a little late because of sound problems - we tried our best to fix them. What can we say? We are all in locked down suburbs, even in Malaysia, and all the neighbours are in lockdown watching Netflix too...

The Academics who talk about the Chair this week 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. ) You can find out more and see Megan's art on Meganmcpherson.com.au

Narelle Lemon:-@rellypops and @wellbeingwhisp1 on Twitter and Instagram - and @rellypops AND @Exploreandcreateco on @Instagram. Visit Explore and Create Co.

Anitra Nottingham (identical twin sister of Inger, which is confusing because she sounds EXACTLY the same - you'll just have to roll with it!). You can find her @anitranot on all the things and her website anitraland.com - her new podcast is available on

Bertha Chin is on Twitter as @bertha_c and Instagram as @transculturalfangirl 

If you'd like to share your own views on The Chair email us on 
academicstalkabouthechair@thesiswhisperer.com or leave us a message on speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer

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