Pink is the newest obsession, thanks to Greta Gerwig’s just-released Barbie starring Margot Robbie. While it’s making the right noises about feminism, patriarchy and capitalism, the doll herself has always enjoyed icon status.

A new mini podcast series, LA Made: The Barbie Tapes, co-hosted by Antonia Cereijido and MG Lord author of Forever Barbie: The Unauthorised Biography of a Real Doll, examines why. “She continues to be the queen of the toy market... Worldwide, according to Mattel, one hundred Barbie dolls are sold every minute,” says Cereijido. Lord, who like her co-host is obsessed with the “intersection of feminism and pop-culture” describes Barbie as a “cultural touchstone”. “There’s also this kind of mythic resonance she has... she is kind of a feminine essence—a goddess archetype, a space-age recasting of a fertility totem.”