The Polyester Podcast

It's been three years, how are we still 'just girls'? Is it because of food trend focussing on nostalgia? A need to heal our inner child? Or a lack of definition of what adulthood without conservative family goals can be? This week, hosts Ione and Gina reckon with what some media outlets are calling 'toddlercore'. From eating tater tots and fro-yo to wearing baggy jeans, is arrested development a...

The UK - and a lot of other countries, actually - are rolling out social media bans for under sixteens as well as social media curfews for those under eighteen. The news has caused uproar with teens promising they'll find workarounds, parents stressing about the impact on their kids and everyone raising concerns about giving mega corporations access to our government ID info. This week, hosts Ione...

It appears tech bros are shaking in their boots because... they're being called cringe - even when they buy a Rimowa suitcase and a full wardrobe from The Row. In a now viral essay, writer Emily Segal assigns the term 'tasteslop' to the lack of taste signified by items that used to be upheld highly in the taste algorithm when enjoyed by those who don't get it - aka, AI bots and the AI company owne...

You're in bed on your own scrolling through your phone. On your screen, a woman your age is entering her new build apartment, making herself a bowl of pasta and a glass of Diet Coke on a lap tray, then sitting on a huge sofa to rewatch Friends with a candle burning. Her caption reads 'Life when you have no kids. No friends. No boyfriend.' and her comments are full of other women seeing her lonely...

It's no surprise to many that the third season of Sam Levinson's former hit TV show has had a less than best reaction from audiences. Aside from the show's actual plot and characterisations - don't worry, we'll get into those later - Levinson's real life reputation and his own world view has seeped into even the most die hard Euphoria stan's perception of the show. This week, hosts Ione and Gina d...

Olivia Rodrigo is the subject of the internet's ire for *checks notes* allegations of pedobaiting. The star's music video and stage outfits - consisting of babydoll dresses, bloomers and ruffles - are causing controversy as the 'drop dead' singer is accused of simultaneously sexualising and infantilising herself and indoctrinating her young audience into pandering to the male gaze. In this week's...

Celebs are no longer monoliths, Instagram is my diary and you no longer need to buy a memoir to know the intricate details of a public figure’s life. Across PR campaigns, podcast appearances and TikTok lives, influencers, musicians and actors alike push to seem authentic and relatable. With those in the public eye sharing more and more, why does the incredibly personal art still manage to shock us...

Why are manosphere influencers, Hinge bios and cast members of Love Is Blind requiring 'doing pilates' from their potential beaus? In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the pervasion of this particular exercise in pop culture, the potential abuse inherent in men's preferences towards women's exercise and whether or not we should consider the fascist implications of influenc...

While the biggest audience for true crime content is young women, it's not often that anyone considers the every growing cultural phenomenon through a feminist lens. What do podcasts, documentaries and tv shows get right about revealing the reality of crime against women? And do we benefit from being more about what violence can (and has) happened against women throughout history? This week, our h...

Did Girls shape a generation (or two) of women? Yes. Is Famesick a great memoir? Yes. Should we be more forgiving of the writer considering everything she has (and hasn't) been through? Maybe. This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with one of the most controversial figures of our lifetime - the inimitable over-sharer Lena Dunham. It's undeniable that the multi hyphenate has had an indelible...

As we’re slowly learning more about drugs like Ozempic, we’re also finding out more about their side effects. Does botox reduce our ability to empathise? Are we all just numbing ourselves from the world in the pursuit of self optimisation? In this week’s episode, hosts Ione and Gina dig into how people are using tweakments not just for their advertised effects - but for the ways they change our em...

It's that time y'all! The Polyester Podcast is wading into the discourse deep end about another widely critiqued movie but this time, there's a twist: We're actually enjoyed the film! In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina dig into the subtext of Kristoffer Borgli's new dark comedy The Drama. Is the Zendaya and Robert Pattinson fronted flick a failure at analysing such a sensitive subject mat...

We're back and the world has gone ape in our absence! Between X discourse about Slut Walks and criticism of Lindy West's new memoir Adult Braces, it's time for a full retcon of the past and present state of Millennial Feminism. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina reflect on 2010s sex positivity, the commodification of feminism throughout the ages and the nihilistic point of view gen z femi...

Please note this was recorded and released prior to the release of series four of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, the cancellation of The Bachelorette and the news regarding Taylor Frankie Paul. Growing up, Mormonism's pop culture imprint belonged solely in South Park jokes and the occasional mention in American politics. Now, it feels like we can't move without a new Mormon influencer - from Nara S...

Before 21 year old looksmaxxer streamer Clavicular walked the Elena Valez runway at NYFW, his brand of hyper misogynist masculinity was confined to teenage boys in their bedrooms and the terminally online taking the piss out of him. But after making his fashion debut, Clavicular has garnered attention from nearly every mainstream mag imaginable. With other designers sending ‘looksmaxxing’ T-shirts...

Emerald Fennell has only gone and done it again - made a visually stimulating but emotionally empty film for posh people to coo over. Is it a faithful adaptation of Wuthering Heights? No. Is it an amazing film in its own right regardless? Also no. Do the sets and costumes make up for bad casting and crap script? Unfortunately, this time, I'm afraid it's a no. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and...

“TAKE THAT BETA BLOCKER, GIRL!" exclaims Rachel Sennott on your iPhone from the Oscars red carpet. A couple of years ago, you remember a Kardashian episode dedicated to Khloe taking beta blockers on the back of Kris's advice. Giggly Squad sell you a baseball cap with 'Beta Blockers' emblazoned across it. This week, hosts Ione and Gina dig into the normalisation of the blood pressure medication for...

As we've come to expect with a political crisis, celebrities have no idea how to act - Do you post to story even if you get labelled performative a la Billie Eilish? Do you prepare a speech in case you're stopped on the red carpet wearing an ICE OUT pin, so you're not caught out like Jack Antonoff? Do you align yourself with the worst people in the world, as Nicki Minaj as opted for in the past co...

In the final hour before recording this week, we had to push our planned research aside and get stuck into the meat and bones of the juiciest celeb drama 2026 has given us so far: Brooklyn Beckham released an eight part Instagram story tell all about his much rumoured estrangement from his parents, Victoria and David Beckham. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the implic...

Would you like an app that analyses your Google calendar and plans your day for you? Have you tried ChatGPT for meal planning? What about this ring that tracks your sleep habits and creates a routine that will mean you get to sleep even faster than before? We're suffering a convenience endemic, where the tech and AI solutions to being uncomfortable are breeding new, depressing ways to avoid the re...

A dark new issue has arisen on the platform formerly known as Twitter (a likely place for it to happen) where users are asking X's inbuilt AI bot, Grok, for indecent and sexualised images of women and children. While, as discussed in the ep, nudeification isn't exactly a new problematic facet of life online, it's only in the last month that the act has become a "trend" - for lack of a better word....

Happy new year girlies! As is tradition in this joint (and across the internet at large), our hosts are giving their hot or not predictions for the upcoming twelve months. In this week's episode, Ione and Gina discuss the possible return of woke, whether Substack is over, Timothée Chalamet’s chances of winning the Oscar, whether we’ll finally see the death of on the street voxpop TikToks, and much...

Vanity Fair has gone and done it, they've revealed the true grotesqueness of the Trump administration with high res, close up photos of the White House staff. Or is it really all that surprising, when we've been chatting about Republican makeup and Mar-A-Lago face for months? This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the reasons behind why MAGA women are investing so heavily in this particu...

Surprise! A little midweek episode to keep you updated on the Polyester goings on! This week, hosts Ione and Gina chat the new issue with Sky Ferreira on the cover, the launch events in New York plus a little sidebar into this week's cultural going ons. Buy the issue here! Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3 Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here! Order Gina'...

It's been a bumper week for the Timothee Chalamet stans - Marty Supreme is getting hit reviews, his hair is starting to grow back and the very controversial key holder of the kingdom has done her first ever media feature. That's right, Club Chalamet just got profiled by the Wall Street Journal. This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the reaction surrounding the feature, Club Chalamet's f...