Your brain on writing

Welcome to your brain on writing. The podcast where we unpack the experience of reading and writing and try to understand what it does to our brains. This podcast was produced by Professor Inger Mewburn from The Australian National University and Associate Professor Paul Magee from the University of Canberra. Paul and Inger write books and teach writing. They also share a fascination with way words on a page can become images in our minds, or ideas in our hearts. This podcast series was made with the assistance of undergraduate student interns from the Centre for Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University. This episode is about Waffle: the struggle to find and use words that create meaning, rather than just fill up a page. Bad academic writing is full of waffle, but are all academics equally at risk of generating waffle? Even mathematicians?This episode was researched and narrated by Isaac Tang and contains interview segments with one of his maths lecturers at ANU, Dr Griffin Ware. 

Welcome to your brain on writing. The podcast where we unpack the experience of reading and writing and try to understand what it does to our brains. This podcast was produced by Professor Inger Mewburn from The Australian National University and Associate Professor Paul Magee from the University of Canberra. Paul and Inger write books and teach writing. They also share a fascination with way words on a page can become images in our minds, or ideas in our hearts. This podcast series was made with the assistance of undergraduate student interns from the Centre for Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University. This episode is about that little voice you hear inside your head when you read, and maybe when you write. Why is reading silently more like listening to yourself talk? What is inner speech for and why is it important? This episode was researched, written and narrated by Rosie Goggs and contains interview segments from inner speech researchers Ben Alderson-Day and Charles Fernyhough.The next episode in this series will be about that little voice inside your head that you ‘hear' when you read. You might be surprised to learn how useful it can be. 

Welcome to your brain on writing. The podcast where we unpack the experience of reading and writing and try to understand what it does to our brains. This podcast was produced by Professor Inger Mewburn from The Australian National University and Associate Professor Paul Magee from the University of Canberra. Paul and Inger write books and teach writing. They also share a fascination with way words on a page can become images in our minds, or ideas in our hearts. This podcast series was made with the assistance of undergraduate student interns from the Centre for Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University. This episode is about what makes writing boring. Specifically, what makes academic writing boring. This episode was researched, written and narrated by Tara South and contains interview segments from Paul and Inger.The next episode in this series will be about that little voice inside your head that you ‘hear' when you read. You might be surprised to learn how useful it can be. 

What is your brain on writing?Anitra, Narelle and Megan have gone off on other projects, leaving Inger in charge of the podcast feed. She got bored, so she made a new podcast with Paul Magee, who teaches  poetry and research at the University of Canberra, unpick the science of reading and writing with the help of Rosie, Isaac and Tara, undergraduates at the Centre for Public Awareness of Science at the ANU.We'll look at how boredom works and how writers sometimes use it to their advantage. We'll look at the body of reader and writer alike, and the subtle ways texts bring it into play as we give voice to them. We'll look at the relationship between gesture and writing. The way memory relates to the units of writing—the phrase, sentences and paragraphs—to build up coherent worlds. The different ways people think when they write scholarly essays, compared to poems or novels.  Your Brain on Writing came about because Paul and Inger  like to talk about books about books: where writing comes from, and where it takes us as we read it. Stay tuned for the first episode of Your Brain on Writing, which will be out early in 2022.

Inger, Megan, Anitra and Narelle continue their episode by episode forensic  examination of 'The Chair'. This time we're examining the last episode - The Chair.In the last episode, unresolved sexual tension (UST) is resolved (sort of). Punishment is delivered (kind of) and, as is the way in almost every contemporary romance novel, every one is Happy For Now (HFN).Warning - this episode contains Megan's utter disgust about The Kiss amongst other salacious details. BUT we got all our sound problems ironed out - just in time for the Last Episode.For our fans - we know there's a few: Academics Talk About... is not done! We're having too much fun to stop and it's going to be lockdown for a while yet. As soon as we have decided what show to dissect next, we'll be back. So stay subscribed and see what happens!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.auNarelle 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 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

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.auNarelle 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

Inger, Megan, Anitra and Narelle continue their episode by episode forensic  examination of 'The Chair'. This time we're examining episode four: 'Don't Kill Bill'.We're joined 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!).  We enjoy a lot of Bill and Ju Ju time in this episode, although we also find time to sympathise with Ji-Yoon struggling with leadership, Yaz struggling with The Establishment (in the form of Elliot) and Joan letting loose her rage at students who write crappy evaluations.(some of the sound in this episode is a bit crappy too - apologies. 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.auNarelle 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.comBertha Chin is on Twitter as @bertha_c and Instagram as @transculturalfangirl 

Inger, Megan, Anitra and Narelle continue their episode by episode forensic  examination of 'The Chair'. This time we're examining episode three: The Town Hall.Once again we're joined for this episode by Professor Pauline Reynolds who is a legitimate expert on representations of academics in popular culture. She's even written books and stuff! You can find out about Pauline's research here.This might be our favourite episode of The Chair and not just because of Joan setting fire to her evals. We discuss 'bill whiplash', IT guys, that admin person who holds everything together and Ji Yoon's amazing day to night outfit - amongst many other things.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.auNarelle 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.comPauline Reynolds is @representingHE on Twitter and you can find out about Pauline's research here.

Inger, Megan, Anitra and Narelle continue their episode by episode forensic  examination of 'The Chair'. This time we're examining episode two: the faculty party. We are joined for this episode by Professor Pauline Reynolds who is a legitimate expert on representations of academics in popular culture. She's even written books and stuff! You can find out about Pauline's research here.This is a romantic episode, but at least one of us remains unmoved by the relationship development between Ji Yoon and Bill. All of us were triggered by the microagressions and sexism in the party scenes... But we still found lots to laugh about. We hope you do too.Big shout out to the Academic Aunties Pod mentioned in this episode. You can find it here.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.auNarelle 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.comPauline Reynolds is @representingHE on Twitter and you can find out about Pauline's research here.

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