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 your own bad taste!
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Polyester is a self published, intersectional feminist arts and culture publication aiming to bridge the gap of URL cyberfeminism with the IRL world.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 your own bad taste!
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Polyester is a self published, intersectional feminist arts and culture publication aiming to bridge the gap of URL cyberfeminism with the IRL world.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 and the groypers on the Trump administration, the faux deplatforming of alt right darlings like Red Scare's Dasha Nekrasova and why we need to rally against the widening of the Overton window.
Check out https://www.squarespace.com/POLYESTER10 to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code POLYESTER10.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 in this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina take their lens to the comms on courtship.
Do we want our favourite influencers to remain perpetually single? Are we once bitten, twice shy about men after the scary stories we hear about dating online? And is any of this influenced by the rise of nuclear family and trad wife rhetoric shared repeatedly by the alt right?
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 episode, hosts Ione and Gina dig into the album, asking whether encouraging parasocial relationships is a marketing ploy, how influencer culture has changed the landscape of songwriting and why more cynicism is required when listening to pop music.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 pointedly target young women - discussing how the dangers of debt have been replaced by the glamorisation of Klarnamaxxing, whether we should trust these brands to budget for us and why shopping addictions aren't treated sincerely in society.
Check out https://www.squarespace.com/POLYESTER10 to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code POLYESTER10.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 episode looks at the wider implications that the Kardashian pube thong represents. Tackling the fashion week shows that limited body types and compromised movement for models alongside the lingerie launch, hosts Ione and Gina ask whether there's been a worse time for feminism in fashion.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 indicates how an ardently capitalist point of view rots the joy out of good pop music.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 episode, hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the ongoing dissonance between actors signing up for Harry Potter related roles and their supposed ethical standards, whether or not we should want previous Potter stars to stand up in the press against Rowling's views and if we should promote the 'accepting differences and loving each other' rhetoric in such a politically dangerous time.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 mass boycotts across America following the firing.
In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina dig into the late stage capitalism that has monopolised media outlets in America, how conspiracy conversations are clouding our judgement and whether comparisons of the current Republican party to previous fascist regimes are eye opening or distracting.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 is ignoring the ecological impact of AI chat bots.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 male members of the dirtbag left change their tune on social justice, whether 'dark woke' is working in terms of making the left cool again and whether the overton window for acceptability in politics is shrinking.
Check out https://www.squarespace.com/POLYESTER10 to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code POLYESTER10.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 Gina get to grips with whether this new archetypal male is anything new, or if men have always manipulated what women want to get laid.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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't stan the songwriter in the upcoming months.
In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina use Swift/Kelce announcement to springboard a conversation on how pop music journalism died, when press tours became so sycophantic and what does it mean when even the most famous people alive can't be levied with any kind of thoughtful criticism.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 and days since, Nicki Minaj has waded into the beef, fans think they've worked out which Peter Griffin meme tweet pissed Lana off and Azealia Banks has accused every tongue that rises against Ethel of transphobia.
In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina get stuck into the nuances of stan wars, why certain artists get more leeway on being potentially problematic and whether or not the pair will work it out on the remix.
Buy tickets for our London issue launch here!
Check out https://www.squarespace.com/POLYESTER10 to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code POLYESTER10.
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 bots have taken over the comment section and how the bleakness of our feeds mirror the state of wider culture.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 and more commonplace.
In this week's episode, hosts Ione and Gina discuss how the right wing agenda is poisoning the dating pool, whether the widening politics of gen z men and women are affecting romance and why uploading your ID online is the opposite of a step towards a safe internet experience.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 into how fast speed advertising has changed the role of celebrity, why brands are being more blunt about appealing to Trump fans and why we should be more comfortable in calling a spade a spade (or calling a eugenicist a eugenicist).
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 whether young people have always been seen as rude or whether gen z have a particularly obvious feeling of apathy due to the lingering effects of COVID, the climate crisis and an inability to connect with one another. Are we on the brink of gen z being the main focus of online mockery or is it genuinely shocking that they don't say 'hello' upon answering a phone call?
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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? And are our hosts impressed with the Megan Stalter fronted romcom?
This week, Ione and Gina get to grips with whether Too Much is hot or a flop: exploring the representation of class dynamics, the acclaim the series is receiving for fat representation, and questioning why Jess, the show's lead, has absolutely zero mates.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 through thread of crashing out, Justin Bieber is going viral almost daily for his Instagram antics, scraps with paparazzi and alleged ill feelings towards wife Hailey.
In this week's episode, our hosts Ione and Gina get to grips with the continuing normalisation of brutality in the comment section, how the expanding definition of celebrity has negative ramifications and the rising forms of surveillance we are all putting one another under.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 head about the validity of Labubu collecting, the Lafufu fakes populating the market and why nobody is seeing the proliferation of this plush for what it is - just another trend in a long legacy of popular toy collecting.
Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3
Order Ione's book, Poor Little Sick Girls, here!
Order Gina's book, Greedy Guts, here!
Have an opinion and want to be featured on an upcoming episode? We want to leave from YOU! Leave a review, send us your thoughts on this episode to ione@polyesterzine, or drop us a DM on Instagram.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.