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Spoken discourse requires constant interpretation of messages based on text and interactional strategies. Discourse markers, such as you know, work on several planes to signal intentions, guide information flow and manage social interactions. While empirical research has examined its role in casual and instructional settings, this study investigated its use in the context of power dynamics within academic discourse. Eleven student-advisor interactions and eight student peer conversations from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) were analysed for the marker’s frequency and functions to determine the influence of hierarchical and formal differences on its use. Students used the marker more often in peer conversations than in office hours, suggesting its association with informality and potential deference in hierarchical settings. Conversely, the advisors’ more frequent marker employment suggested dominance and possible attempts to project conversational equality. Functionally, peer interactions balanced information transmission and social engagement, whereas in advisor presence, students prioritised textual and metalinguistic precision, possibly to forestall face loss. Advisors, possessing greater social power, employed the marker primarily to guide interpretation and mitigate authority. Disciplinary differences also emerged. While the Humanities and Arts, as well as the Social Sciences and Education, exhibited a higher overall frequency of you know and prioritised social engagement and metalinguistic precision, the Biological- and Health Sciences, as well as the Physical Sciences and Engineering, favoured its use for textual structuring and repair. These findings suggest that discourse formality, power dynamics, and disciplinary norms influence you know’s distribution and function in academic speech.