How Mormonism Took Over Pop Culture
The Polyester Podcast
The Polyester Podcast
4.5 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 Smith to MomTok - taking over our feeds.
This week, hosts Ione and Gina explore what Mormonism actually is, how the new wave of Mormon influencers have changed how the Latter Day Saints are perceived and whether or not reality telly can truly sugar coat the toxic problems within the religion.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Gina. |
| 0:00.9 | Hi, Ioni. Hi everyone. I'm Gina, the senior editor-in-chief of Pollyester. |
| 0:04.6 | And I'm I'm Ioni, the founding editor-in-chief of Pollyester. |
| 0:07.4 | And this is the Pollyester podcast, a feminist pop culture podcast dissecting the discourse on a weekly basis. Please make sure to like, rate, subscribe and review. If you didn't already know, members get loads of free things like zines, merch, digital merch, one-on-one mentoring, a WhatsApp chat with me and Ione, and other people. Loads and loads of other stuff. Sign up via the link in our description. Do we have any reviews, Ioni? We do. How do you explain this emoji? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Three times. |
| 0:38.2 | Your cultural analysis is fire. |
| 0:39.8 | I love listening to you girls, Yellow Love Heart, by Gabby Balinga in New Zealand, five stars. |
| 0:45.1 | Thank you. |
| 0:45.8 | Thank you. |
| 0:46.5 | And then this is on Spotify. |
| 0:49.5 | For Weathering Heights, we have Fati saying, using someone's level of praise for this movie as a |
| 0:55.1 | litmus test for their sanity and then cabia says no taste class or panache whoosh whoosh |
| 1:01.8 | quite what we're doing today also Gina's in a really bad move with me today so um great |
| 1:07.9 | great yeah um today we're doing iani's special subject Um, great. Great, yeah. |
| 1:14.7 | Today we're doing Aoni's special subject. |
| 1:16.8 | Mormons in the media. |
| 1:18.1 | Mormons. |
| 1:20.6 | It actually started as your specialist subject though. |
| 1:21.9 | What do you mean? |
| 1:25.2 | Because when you were really into TikTok, you were like, everything is Mormonism. |
| 1:26.2 | And I was like, no. |
| 1:44.1 | And you were like, yeah, everything, like Stanley Cups is Mormonism. Stanley Cups is Mormonism. So is so do pops with flavour. Yeah. It's Mormonism. Hereditary had Mormonism. Did it? The two girls are Mormons, isn't it? What two girls? In her, not hereditary. What's the film called? |
| 1:45.1 | What happened? |
... |
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