Thesis Whisperer

•

Channel • 2 Shows

Arts

Arts

Updated Semimonthly
Self-Improvement

Self-Improvement

Updated Monthly

JAN 22

AI SEO - how does ChatGPT talk about you behind your back?

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! Hey! Jason will be in the UK in Late April. If you'd like to chat to him about the trip and possibly having him visit you, email us on enquiries@ontheregteam.com Watch this episode on YouTube The banter section of this episode is lost to history because Jason forgot to hit record! After a short intro by Inger, the team go straight into the mail bag. Let's face it, this is the good stuff anyway - who needs Tinny and puppy news? In our work problems segment, we discuss the appearance of ChatGPT as a referrer to the Thesis Whisperer blog and what it might mean for researcher visibility. How does an LLM decide on what is an 'authoritative source' on the internet? Is this a new form of 'research impact' and what should researchers do about it, if anything? This episode also ends abruptly when Inger gets a phone call - the next episode will be much more polished, we promise! Things we mentioned: Tiago Forte's PARA bookBlooms TaxonomyAmazing Marvin appClick up appBe visible or vanish bookThe Enshittification of Academic Social Media Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

Jan 22

•

1h 12m
11/30/2025

Is boredom your academic superpower?

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! Welcome to the first Youtube video version of the pod! Watch it here Sorry for the sound quality for the first 10 minutes - promise it gets better when we remembered to turn the mics on! The filming/recording took ages, through many interruptions, and bad technical decisions... so much effort in fact, that we are not sure if we will do it again. Let us know if you like it and we might persist! In this episode we talk about Boredom at work. Inger reads Jason in on the literature and floats her theory that the PhD is an exercise in training boredom tolerance. Things we mentioned: Thesis Whisperer post about boredom in PhD studySavers - the thrifting superstoreAn academic affair - new romance book set in Australian Academia by Jodie McAllisterThe Dopamine Brain (book)Enshittification (book)One Battle After AnotherTron: AresSoul by PixarScispace AI Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

11/30/2025

•

1h 37m
09/21/2025

If AI is the hammer, do we have the right nails?

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! Jason has been living his best life, travelling NZ (where he did not touch boiling mud, as much as he was tempted to) and having excuses to eat pepper steak pies. Meanwhile Inger has been having a shit time at work and waiting for her puppy to arrive. After a confession during the mailbag segment, we hear all about Jason's star keynote at the ASPIRE conference, which led to... well, a bit of a rant on Inger's part at least. You get the picture! Things we mentioned: ANU Vice Chancellor resignsJason and Ginger CatBlossom - puppy mum to beRich Academic / Poor AcademicLittle National Hotel NewcastlePerplexity AISlides: How to think about AI in the workplaceAI as thinking partner frameworkAI as verifier frameworkAI as Information Processor FrameworkHow I used Claude as a ready-to-hand technology to help me build a Structured Dialogic Thinking BotInger's structured dialogic inquiry bot (free to use)Black Hawk DownFree Time by Jenny BlakeThe EMythBreakneck - China's quest to build the futureAI as normal technologyGot thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

09/21/2025

•

2h 7m
JAN 16

Mrs Eaves

You’ve seen Mrs Eaves everywhere—even if you’ve never known her name. In this episode, we uncover the story behind one of the most familiar typefaces around, and its designer, Suzanna Licko—a woman who gets credit for her work (well, mostly… it’s complicated). Anitra dives into the research with plenty of side-eye and a healthy distrust of design history, informed in part by having gone to design school with private school boys. Along the way, we detour into the HR relations of early 18th-century print shops, trade magazines, and the so-called legibility wars of the early 1990s. Stick with us—or better still, visit our website to see Mrs Eaves used in the transcript—and you’ll leave ready to dominate bookstores with your new favourite game: guess that book cover typeface (Spoiler alert: it's probably Mrs Eaves). "Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars! Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes. #wehategoudy

Jan 16

•

47 min
12/26/2025 · BONUS

Emergency Pod - Welcome to the resistance Calibri!

An emergency podcast. Ripped straight from the headlines of a couple weeks ago. When Calibri was unceremoniously replaced by Times New Roman under the Trump administration, we chose to process our feelings—potential travel ban be damned. Yes, this episode is about fonts. And no, it’s really not. In a looser, more unscripted conversation than usual, we turn rage into humour while exposing how typography has always been political: shaping authority, enforcing norms, and quietly excluding people. Typefaces, it turns out, have never been neutral. "Back to Font" is out now in English, German, and Spanish! Buy it on Amazon. It's got 5 stars! Visit our website thetypepod.org to see the show notes. #wehategoudy

12/26/2025 · Bonus

•

34 min
10/04/2020

Everything is terrible, but at least we have pandemic homewares

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! This episode carries a content warning... best not to listen if hearing about the pain of losing a job is triggering for you. Jason's job has been 'dis-established' and we get real with the state of universities and what it's like to lose a job you love. In this epic, no holds barred discussion Inger recounts her perception-shifting experience of being unfairly treated as a young academic and Jason reflects on how to approach work when you have had the veil ripped from your eyes. We went long on this one - it ended up being 1hr and 45m - so we’ve edited for length. Our regular ‘work problems’ segment has been snippety-doo-dah’d and we’ll hold it over for next episode where we’ll double down on practical, implementable productivity hacks to help you live a more balanced life. Jason mentions: The Precariat: the new dangerous class by Guy Standing Inger mentions: How to be an academic - her (now poorly named!) book where she talks about the university as a bad boyfriend Cal Newport's latest podcast Episode 32 Habit tune up. How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project - Elizabeth Humphreys Her nice new desk lamp that doubles as a Zoom lighting rig (Instagram) ‘Is it Do You Have ‘Zoom Fatigue’ or Is It Existentially Crushing to Pretend Life Is Normal as the World Burns?’ by Devon Price Digital Minimalism: choosing a focused life in a noisy world - Cal Newport John Perry’s structured procrastination essay Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

10/04/2020

•

1h 1m
05/29/2022

Revisiting the bullet journal and seven varieties of stupidity

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! Inger and Jason are back to their usual format now the election is done. This is the first weekend in 18 months that Inger doesn't have any political activism planned for the weekend - and she is happy about the election result because a well hung parliament is a good parliament in her book (totally worth a 6 vodka hang over). Meanwhile, Jason has been super busy with being #bigboss but he does have an awesome executive assistant who is now in charge of his diary (which is weird, but in a good way). In the work problems segment, the duo revisit their bullet journal practice, 18 months in, to see what's changed. (If you don't use a bullet journal or #bujo, it's a good idea to watch this 4 minute video before you listen otherwise the whole segment probably won't make sense. ) Will Inger give up Omni? What actual page number is Jason up to now? What happens when you lose your #bujo on the train and a kindly soul returns it to you? (Well, this last one won't happen to Jason because he's sorted that out with an RFID card). You'll have to listen to the episode to find out! (Or skip if if it seems like incomprehensible gibberish, we honestly don't mind). Jason's commute and Brazilian Ju Jitsu practice has made it difficult to read, while Inger has been reading, but a LOT of trash. She does share an article on the seven varieties of stupidity by Ian Leslie, which the duo agree explains a lot of their life inside universities. Finally, in the two minute tip section, Jason is experimenting with 'Hook', a new kind of linking software on the map and Inger is using travel time to put more buffers in her day. In other words, a pretty typical episode of On The Reg, but a long one because, well - it's been awhile and we've missed our nerd chats. Queue up a long drive, some gardening, housework or be like Siobhan and get out the knitting :-) Links 4 minute video about how to do a #bujo seven varieties of stupidity If you're interested in the timing app, you can find out more here. If you're interested in Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

05/29/2022

•

1h 46m
09/11/2022

The 80/20 principle: is this book bullshit?

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! Inger and Jason have been busy, you know - the usual. Inger has been deep in three minute thesis land (ie: the annual ANU 'high school musical') and Jason paid $250 to learn he doesn't have to have surgery (yay!). There's only a little bit of 'old people complaining about their health' in the first bit before they listen to a speak pipe from Tseen Khoo (17:14). Tseen has finally read and reviewed the Navy SEALs romance that Inger sent her, and points out the trope that ruins the book for Inger, forever (and how well the hero fills out his Dress Whites). Tseen's expert review forces Jason to finally Share His Feelings about 'Ordinary Everyday Jones', the Navy SEALs romance Inger sent him at the same time. Needless to say, He has Notes and finds the book terribly confusing... but does actually admit it was a fun read. Look, this whole bit goes on much longer than expected, but hopefully it's the review that Inger's friend Nick Hill has been waiting for! The duo move on to their work problems segment (35:48) where they do a Bristol Stool chart analysis of 'The 80/20 principle: how to work less and achieve more' by Richard Koch. Inger prepared an On The Reg discussion guide, complete with the Bristol Stool chart so the pair could do an accurate b******t rating. Inger reckons that Richard needs to knock off the single malt whiskey a bit, while Jason talks her into seeing the valuable bits amongst all that rampant capitalism. Finally the pair get to two minute tips (1:26:17). Jason talks about bomb disposal and reports back on the timers he bought the other week. Inger talks about how a colleague nearly killed her laptop by knocking over a bottle of water and takes the opportunity to wax lyrical about backup plans. Things we mentioned: Get Lucky by Suzanne Brockmann Everyday Average Jones - Suzanne Brockmann (on GoodReads) The 80/20 principle by Richard Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

09/11/2022

•

1h 41m
07/31/2022

Applying 'Extreme Ownership' to your career: are you an elbow patcher or an entrepreneur?

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! Inger and Jason catch up on Inger's 24th wedding anniversary (with Mr Thesis Whisperer's permission!). Inger went to Newcastle in the Tesla and had fun doing a workshop in a bathroom. It's been a weird couple of weeks: she also encountered giant animatronic wombats on the lawns of parliament house while taking part in an NTEU event. Jason's had Covid in the house (9:47), but avoided getting it, despite using his Aunt's method of taking temperature of kids via hugging. He's finally going back to just two jobs (thank goodness) and trying to work out how to not overwhelm the big boss when she gets back. Jason and Inger talk about how they were interview by Andrew for The Omni Show (18:48) and are just a little bit excited that they got retweeted by Ken Case (squee!). At 24:46 there's some talk about Navy SEALS and our #deathcagematchreadathon with @tseenster on Twitter. Inger's been reading 'Extreme Ownership' by Jocko Willing and Leif Babin while Jason has been reading a romance called 'Everyday, Average Jones' by Susan Brockmann. They also made @tseenster read one, but she hasn't left a speak pipe review yet (no pressure Tseen!). Then they both unpack the lessons from 'Extreme Ownership: how US Navy SEALs lead and win' (40:38) Using a slide deck to guide the conversation. Inger applies three of the lessons (extreme ownership, Believe and Plan) to the problems of academic life, specifically designing a career for yourself (1:01:58). The pair discuss her theory there are two types of academic 'elbow patch' (who spend their careers in deep study becoming The Expert) and Entrepreneur (the ones who are agile to survive). They debate the pros and cons of both career choices and then how to fit into the broader mission of a university (1:13:39) and then go on to drop the knowledge about how to use the university strategic planning process to basically Get What You Need (1:22:48). They close out with talk about necrotic robots (yes, reanimating dead spiders - shudder) and the terrifying footage of a robot dog with a crazy accurate machine gun strapped to its back (1:42:59). The two minute tips are there, but trust us when we say that you will STILL be thinking about killer robots by the end of this episode - hasta la vista! Thanks to Riverside.fm for supporting the show. We recommend it for all your podcasting and remote recording needs: enter ONTHEREG for a 15% discount or use this link. Stuff we mentioned: Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

07/31/2022

•

2h 1m
09/06/2023

Is productivity talk the new veganism?

Can't be bothered with email or speak pipe? Text us! The Downs household has suffered a loss, while one member of the Mewburn household has discovered hither to unknown talents. Somehow the team still end up crapping about Obsidian a lot in the banter section. This is our second sabbatical mailbag episode (starting 20:44), which prompts a series of incredibly nerdy conversations about Microsoft Teams, Omnifocus, Text Expander, Obsidian, Bullet Journal etc - Even Nvivo and MaxQDA. In other words: the greatest hits. (A comment from listener Aaron has us wondering why most people's eyes glaze over when we start talking about this stuff, prompting Inger to wonder out loud if being interested in productivity is a bit like being a vegan. You decide!) Jason is reading Hunter S Thompson (starts 1:12:17) to avoid Inger giving him yet another romance novel. Oh, and Inger read the new Tiago Forte book so you don't have to - you're welcome. Lastly: Two Minute Tips (1:33:13) lasts heaps longer than two minutes, fair warning. Stuff we mentioned: The Cat protection society David Sparks Obsidian Field Guide Our first Obsidian Episode (mysteriously popular with listeners - warning. Super Nerdy) Danah Byrd Context Collapse Got thoughts and feel pinions? Want to ask a question? You can email us on - Leave us a message on www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. - See our workshop catalogue on www.ontheregteam.com. You can book us via emailing Jason at enquiries@ontheregteam.com - Subscribe to the free, monthly Two Minute Tips newsletter here (scroll down to enter your email address) - We're on BlueSky as @drjd and @thesiswhisperer (but don't expect to hear back from Jason, he's still mostly on a Socials break). - Read Inger's stuff on www.thesiswhisperer.com. - If you want to support our work, you can sign up to be a 'Riding the Bus' member for just $2 a month, via our On The Reg Ko-Fi site

09/06/2023

•

1h 52m

Academically inclined entertainment produced by Professor Inger Mewburn from The Australian National University. What links all my shows is nerdish enthusiasm and good conversations.

Website

Thesis Whisperer

Top Shows

AI SEO - how does ChatGPT talk about you behind your back?

Is boredom your academic superpower?

If AI is the hammer, do we have the right nails?

Mrs Eaves

Emergency Pod - Welcome to the resistance Calibri!

Everything is terrible, but at least we have pandemic homewares

Revisiting the bullet journal and seven varieties of stupidity

The 80/20 principle: is this book bullshit?

Applying 'Extreme Ownership' to your career: are you an elbow patcher or an entrepreneur?

Is productivity talk the new veganism?

About

Thesis Whisperer

Top Shows

Top Episodes

About