The Polyester Podcast

As we're all subjected to another Wicked press tour for the second instalment of the blockbuster, the question on everyone's lips is whether the Wicked press tour ever stopped in the first place? Greeted with another series of emotional interviews, reaction tweets and harrowing body discourse, it felt urgent to dissect what precisely is dampening the furore this time around. This week, hosts (and...

Nick Fuentes has spent five years building not only a name for himself but an army of his own to fight in what the far right incel community has dubbed the groyper war. The live streamer uses his platform, America First, to push for an ultra conservative agenda not just among his peers but with actual political figures too. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina track the impact of Fuentes an...

The internet, left and right leaning, has been set ablaze by a ragebait headline and a deep dive into our dating practices or rather, our online posting of our burgeoning and established relationships. The British Vogue article, titled 'Is It Embarrassing To Have A Boyfriend' feels like harkening back to an earlier time on the internet, when one op-ed could get everyone talking about one topic and...

West End Girl has taken the internet by storm as Lily Allen returns to the charts with a new confessional album dissecting the relationship breakdown between her and ex husband David Harbour. From the extremely detailed lyrics to the, well, even more extremely detailed lyrics, fans are thrilled to get fully behind the curtain of everything that's gone wrong in Allen’s marriage. In this week's epis...

Would you rather one payment of $150 or three monthly payments of $50? Is this pizza basically free if I pay $4 for a few months rather than twelve bucks at once? As the famously moral financial institution CashApp once said, “Little payments are so much cuter.” In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina look at the rise of "cute debt" - the monicker given to Buy Now, Pay Later schemes that point...

2025 has been the year of the pube, from bushtok going viral for promoting an overgrown mon pubis to the sold out SKIMS merkins that Kim Kardashian launched last week, we can't stop talking about our intimate hair - or lackthereof. While some point to the Margiela couture show last year that promoted fake pubic freedom for the rise in intimate hair's popularity in the zeitgeist, this week's episod...

The reception to Taylor Swift’s twelfth studio album has been markedly different than historic fan reactions; as Swifties and Swift haters unite to deliver the best meme about how bad the new music is. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina dissect the poorly received Charli xcx diss track, why the album’s lyricism has fallen flat, and whether just how rubbish The Life Of a Showgirl is indica...

It doesn't take much to goad JK Rowling into a Twitter tirade these days (allegedly.) A fake news story about bra buying in Markses? Up for days raving about it? A former colleague gives a milquetoast response about differing opinions and expresses love towards her? Time to take advantage of the X Premium perk of no word count limit. Pronouns in bio? Great opportunity to go berserk. In this week's...

It's been an absolutely mental month for the US media and one face has emerged as the hero of free speech for the Left, a person none of us saw coming to the pulpit to expunge us of our sins: Jimmy Kimmel. The late night host was promptly reprimanded by being taken off the air after making light of Trump's lack of visible grief over the murder of Charlie Kirk, only to be quickly reinstated after m...

If over half of gen z have interacted with an AI companion and dating apps are rolling out bots to date on your behalf - where is the line drawn between real love and falling for a fantasy? In this week's episode, Ione and Gina dig into the growing romantic relationships people are having with Replika, how AI companies are ignoring queerness, whether or not bot love is legitimate and why everyone...

Another day, another Cumtown alumni going viral for doing something politically sound - from Adam Friedland's interview with Ritchie Torres to Stavros Halkias challenging his podcast guest on transphobic rhetoric, the former courters of controversy have apparently done a complete u turn on their previous edgelord output. This week, hosts Ione and Gina take a look at what's made the most famous mal...

The newest evolution of softboi has just landed with the most on the nose name yet - the performative male. He reads Sylvia Plath outside indie coffee shops as he sips matcha. He has a Labubu and his Labubu has a cute nickname. He is a little bit Letterboxd famous and he calls his mother once a week. He's also the worst man you have ever dated in your life. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and G...

It's been a bumper month for Taylor Swift - when is it not? - as she made her first ever podcast appearance, announced a new album and got engaged all within the space of a fortnight. As everyone online and off gears up for what will likely be a never ending news and meme cycle on the singer's upcoming nuptials, many quake in fear for what the Swift fandom are going to unleash on anyone who doesn'...

Our favourite Americana girlies are fighting! Alligator wife Lana Del Rey aired her beef with American Teenager singer Ethel Cain to the public by sharing a snippet of an upcoming diss track entitled 'All About Ethel'. The lyrics call out Cain for hating her Instagram post, posing similarly with the pair's shared ex Jack Donoghue and trying to be the most famous girl at Waffle House. In the hours...

Slop content - AI generated videos and images created to bait engagement on social media content - is getting more and more unavoidable. Whether you’ve been duped by bunnies on trampolines or enthralled by a AI cat fronted soap opera; we face a social media landscape that's no longer fit for purpose. This week, Ione and Gina dive into who benefits from the enshittification of the internet, why bot...

Should you quiz your man on if he's doing princess treatment or the bare minimum? Are you allowed to look waiters in the eye or would that ruin you and your husband's night? Have you tried to check if your Hinge date is a creep and ended up getting doxxed by 4chan? If you're single and looking to mingle, these extreme situations - or, extreme online recommendations of how to act - are getting more...

It's been over a year since we last spoke about Sydney Sweeney and how many online and off see the Euphoria actress as a MAGA spokeswoman. Her latest scandal - an American Eagle advert celebrating the blonde's "great genes" - cements Sweeney's spot as the right's poster child. In this week's episode, recorded before that expose revealing Sweeney is a registered Republican - hosts Ione and Gina dig...

Just as the internet once spent years ripping into the minutia of what made up Millennial sociological habits and expression, now the younger generation is feeling the flack as social media takes the mickey out of 'the gen z stare'. The look itself is comprised of staring blankly when presented with a query, especially when in a work environment. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina ask whe...

We're back from our (unplanned, sorry!!) break with a big one. Lena Dunham has returned to television with a Netflix series that many online are claiming to be as good as - or even better than - Girls, the much lauded HBO show that launched her career. Conversely, critics are writing scathing reviews for broadsheets about the portrayal of romance, women and London in the show. But which is it...

Ding dong the witch is dead - in a Scooby Doo worthy unveiling, the 'Helen McDougal' that began infamous British influencer gossip forum has been unmasked as vegan influencer Sebastian Bond. In the aftermath, TikTokers like Cory's World are cashing in on the moment to detail exactly how hate on platforms like these and trolls across the board has affected their mental health. Following a similar t...

We're addressing the elephant kids toy in the room - the Labubu craze. You've definitely seen these monsters everywhere from exclusive brand collabs to Gemma Collins' Instagram reels to hanging off handbags while you wait in line at the cocktail bar. But where did they come from? And why is everyone going absolutely mad for the Pop Mart blind box item? This week, our hosts Ione and Gina go head to...

Freeze! The Polyester Podcast had a whole episode planned for our lovely listeners until Sabrina Carpenter delivered us feminist discourse on a silver platter, or rather, on a silver dog leash. On Wednesday, the singer announced her forthcoming summer album titled 'Man's Best Friend' along with artwork picturing Sabrina on all fours having her hair pulled by an anonymous suited figure. Is the cove...

Last week Kylie Jenner cemented her new identity as a ‘girl's girl’ revealing the specificities of her boob job while momager Kris chimed in with details of not just one face lift, but two of them. Are the KarJenners finally letting their guard down about how they crafted themselves in line with the modern beauty standards they've helped craft, or is it all a marketing ploy to win relatability bro...

The writing has been on the wall for a while - Thin is in, pop songs are referencing eating disorders and flexing our ribcages in selfies and fashion content is back full force. In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina get stuck into the spectre that has been haunting social media platforms for the past six months and more - the pervasive return of pro ana content, now newly dubbed #Skinnytok....

Currently trending on TikTok, FKA Twigs is going viral for an interview in which she asks the host and the crowd - "Where are the thinkers?" While internet users raise eyebrows at her question, one that ignores the socioeconomic conditions that affect our ability to create, this week our hosts Ione and Gina use the soundbite to discuss the wider problem at hand - when did pop culture turn into suc...