PODCAST · society
The Polyester Podcast
by The Polyester Podcast
Is Blake Lively a bitch or being misconstrued? Will Elon ever stop cringing us out? And why is everyone using slurs again? Every week Polyester's head girlies Ione Gamble and Gina Tonic take you down a weekly rabbit hole of online discourse and pop culture - from trad wives and surrogacy to porn stars and unhinged press tours. Exploring the intersection of IRL and URL through a feminist lens, the Polyester Podcast is your weekly digest on absolutely everything everyone on the internet is talking about. With guests like Tavi Gevinson and Sofia Coppola collaborator Stacey Battat, and special episodes beamed into your ears from cultural centres like London’s Tate Modern and Barbican Centre, every Monday we offer a down-to-earth take from the front lines of the internet, feminism, and the weird world of celebrity it has spawned. Hosted by Editor in Chief Ione Gamble with Senior Editor Gina Tonic. Edited by Olivia Graham. Have faith in you
Episodes
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I Am Jane Doe And The Internet's Complicity To The Cornell Case
Trigger warning: sexual assault and misogyny The internet has been set ablaze by the proliferation of a college campus sexual assault at Cornell university in 2024. After a recent expose by the student newspaper against the fraternity members who were involved as well as the failings of the…
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How A Covid Conscious Lesbian Bar In Massachusetts Became The Epicentre Of The Culture Wars
You must have heard about it by now and if you haven't? Lucky you. It's not often that a local news story breaks containment through traditional reporting and not a viral TikTok, but for Last Ditch - the Covid conscious lesbian bar in Greenfield, MA - a report from The Boston Globe broke open a...
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Are Thinkfluencers Democratising Education Or Is This Just Academia Slop?
You know the best way to learn something? A 60 second video that you watch on two times speed referencing one case study found in another video of the same ilk. Duh! This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the newest kind of content creator - the Thinkfluencer. This short form video...
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The Problem with Sydney Sweeney’s Gambling Advert Isn’t Her Body
It's not about Sydney Sweeney doing an easily misinterpreted advert again. It's not about her being completely naked in it either. Listen to me, it's just sports. Or at least, that's what gambling app Novig want you to think. This week, our hosts Ione and Gina dissect the discourse surrounding...
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Is C*ntslop A New Pop Genre Or Just Another Way To Diminish Women?
Alert! There has been a slop detected in the mother toilet - who refused to flush? We are talking about, of course, the lukewarm reception that's being directed towards the new Adela and Rebecca Black album releases. This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the newest term spawned out of...
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Is Influencer Hate Just Misogyny?
Has the title influencer dropped from glamour to disregard because people hate women? Or is it possibly due to the growing resentment between the working class and the content creator economy? This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the discourse connecting the ire directed at…
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Kinda Chic That Cool Girl Trends Are Ruining The Internet...
It's kinda chic to eat a sandwich. It's kinda chic to lean on a bollard. It's kinda chic to intellectualise an Instagram trend as a signifier of the end days. This week, hosts Ione and Gina talk about the growing need to be seen as cool across social media - spawning everything from tutorials on...
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The Girlification of Surveillance Culture
The OOTD has taken on a new look: A still snapped from the video your Amazon owned Ring doorbell. Or, if you're Kylie Jenner, a selfie taken on your Meta glasses after bossing around your assistants for an #ad on Instagram. Nadia Lee Cohen and Alex Consani are amongst the swathes of fashion...
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How Horny Is the Slasher Genre? Dissecting The Queer Metaverse of 'Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma'
It's a long, hot American Summerween and we're so excited for Jane Schoenbrun's third feature film to finally hit our screens. 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' is Schoenbrun's third feature film and this time, they're taking on the slasher genre. This week, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips...
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Our Take On Charli xcx's New Album, 'Music, Fashion, Film'
Pop's favourite provocateur Charli xcx is back - not that she ever went away - with a host of ‘anti-marketing marketing’ launch her seventh studio album 'Music, Fashion, Film'. From ‘in conversation with’ events and cover profiles to teasing lyrics via Substack posts and arthouse cinema…
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Extreme Thinness Has Never Been More Coveted, Visible, and Depressing
From Caroline Calloway penning viral essays to the constant discourse surrounding Ariana Grande - it’s no news to listeners of this podcast that thin is in. Yet on a weekly if not daily basis, a new Internet fixation surrounding weight loss rears its ugly head. The content is impossible to avoid,...
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Live: Do Gen Z Have A Problem With Age Shaming?
As Gen Z have aged up, they have become known for a generational distaste (at best) and fear (at worst) of ageing. But how is this expressed and how does it manifest? And why has it developed at all? This week, hosts Ione and Gina are joined by Ellen Atlanta, author of Pixel Flesh, for an extra...
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A Retcon On Self Infantilisation Culture Ft. Toddlercore, Fro-Yo, And Commercial Girlhood
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...
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Are Teenage Social Media Bans Slay Or Unc?
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...
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Why Has Taste Become an Internet-wide Obsession?
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…
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Is Being Lonely The New Status Symbol?
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…
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So… Euphoria Season 3 Is A Flop
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…
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Let Olivia Rodrigo Wear Babydoll Dresses
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...
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Live: In An Era Of Oversharing, Why Is Women’s Art Still Shocking?
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...
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How Pilates Girls Became An Incel Dog Whistle
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...
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Can True Crime Ever Be Feminist?
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...
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The Lena Dunham Renaissance Is Here
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 -...
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Are Botox, Fillers and GLP1’s Changing Not Just Our Bodies, But Our Minds Too?
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...
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Is A24’s 'The Drama' Worth This Much Discourse?
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…
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Millennial Feminism Is Dead, Long Live Millennial Feminism
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...
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How Mormonism Took Over Pop Culture
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…
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How Looksmaxxing, Clavicular, And Alt-Right Masculinity Went Mainstream
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...
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Our Take On Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights
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...
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The Girlification Of Beta Blockers
“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...
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Nicki Minaj is MAGA, ICE out, and If Celebrity Activism Can Be Successful
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…
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Our Take On The Brooklyn Beckham Saga
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…
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Is My Life Too Easy? What Is Frictionmaxxing? And Should We All Be Doing It?
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,...
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Why Are Men Using Elon Musk’s AI Chatbot to Undress Women Without Their Consent? The Latest In AI's Abuse Of Women
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...
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The Only 2026 Ins And Outs List You Need
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...
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Mar-A-Lago Face And The Grotesque Beauty Of MAGA Women
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…
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All The Gossip From Our Print Issue Launch In New York
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...
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The Club Chalamet Deep Dive
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....
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Good For Nothing? Why We’ve All Had Enough Of Wicked
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...
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Who Is Nick Fuentes? What is a Groyper? And How Is Red Scare’s Dasha Nekrasova Involved?
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...
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Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now? Dissecting The Essay That Set The Internet Ablaze
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...
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Let’s Talk About Lily Allen's New Album, West End Girl
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…
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Cute Debt - Is Klarna Killing Our Self Esteem?
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...
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Why Kim Kardashian’s Pubic Wigs Are So Depressing
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...
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On Taylor Swift's Biggest Flop To Date: ‘The Life Of a Showgirl’ Dissected
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,...
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Is Harry Potter Worth Human Rights Violations? The Emma Watson Vs. JK Rowling Debacle Dissected
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…
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Is Jimmy Kimmel A Martyr For Fascist America?
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…
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Are We All Doomed To Have AI Boyfriends?
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...
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Is Woke Cool Again? Why The Dirtbag Left Are Pivoting
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...
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We’ve Had ENOUGH of The Performative Male
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...
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Taylor Swift’s Engagement, Toxic Fandom, And The Death Of The Critic
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...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Is Blake Lively a bitch or being misconstrued? Will Elon ever stop cringing us out? And why is everyone using slurs again?
Every week Polyester's head girlies Ione Gamble and Gina Tonic take you down a weekly rabbit hole of online discourse and pop culture - from trad wives and surrogacy to porn stars and unhinged press tours. Exploring the intersection of IRL and URL through a feminist lens, the Polyester Podcast is your weekly digest on absolutely everything everyone on the internet is talking about.
With guests like Tavi Gevinson and Sofia Coppola collaborator Stacey Battat, and special episodes beamed into your ears from cultural centres like London’s Tate Modern and Barbican Centre, every Monday we offer a down-to-earth take from the front lines of the internet, feminism, and the weird world of celebrity it has spawned.
Hosted by Editor in Chief Ione Gamble with Senior Editor Gina Tonic. Edited by Olivia Graham. Have faith in you
HOSTED BY
The Polyester Podcast
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Polyester Podcast have?
The Polyester Podcast currently has 271 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Polyester Podcast about?
Is Blake Lively a bitch or being misconstrued? Will Elon ever stop cringing us out? And why is everyone using slurs again? Every week Polyester's head girlies Ione Gamble and Gina Tonic take you down a weekly rabbit hole of online discourse and pop culture - from trad wives and surrogacy to porn...
How often does The Polyester Podcast release new episodes?
The Polyester Podcast publishes regularly with 271 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Polyester Podcast?
You can listen to The Polyester Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Polyester Podcast?
The Polyester Podcast is created and hosted by The Polyester Podcast.
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