Everything's Trash, but It's Okay

Black History Month

Staff recommendations, guest essays, and curated reading lists.

Influencer to the stars, comedy queen, podcast co-host, actor, and writer Phoebe Robinson has done it again in Everything's Trash, but It's Okay. In this sharp and contemporary collection of essays, Robinson explores everything from the current political climate to our celebrity-obsessed society (relayed through her humorous and perhaps unhealthy obsession with Bono). Fans of Robinson will delight in her consistent and unique point of view, while new readers will be LOL'ing at the way she finds humor in our often humorless world.  Recommended By Alex Y., Powells.com

From New York Times bestselling author and star of 2 Dope Queens, Phoebe Robinson, comes a new, hilarious, and timely essay collection on gender, race, dating, and a world that seems to always be a self-starting Dumpster fire.

Wouldn't it be great if life came with an instruction manual? Of course, but like access to Michael B. Jordan's house, none of us are getting any. Thankfully, Phoebe Robinson is ready to share everything she's experienced in hopes that if you can laugh at her topsy-turvy life, you can laugh at your own.

Written in her trademark unfiltered and singularly witty style, Robinson's latest essay collection is a call to arms. She tackles a wide range of topics, such as giving feminism a tough love talk in hopes it can become more intersectional; telling society's beauty standards to kick rocks; and demanding that toxic masculinity close its mouth and legs (enough with the manspreading already ), and get out of the way so true progress can happen.

Robinson also gets personal, exploring debt she has hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and maybe most importantly, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She's struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jean size. She knows about trash not only because she sees it every day, but also because she's seen about one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler's List.

Everything's Trash, But It's Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count, as well as an intimate conversation with a new best friend.

"New York Times bestselling author Phoebe Robinson is out to inspire the entirety of the female population with this new collection of essays. Pushing women to take action instead of sitting on the sidelines, Robinson tackles topics of feminism, insane beauty standards, our culture's work ethic, and more....Told with confidence and light, this memoir is a go-to read for the modern woman." PopSugar

"Just when it feels like the world is falling irreparably apart, Phoebe Robinson is here to make things better. Whether she is unpacking the state of feminism or taking you through the dystopian world of online dating, she is manages to be on point, original, and laugh out loud funny. This vital, unflinching essay collection simultaneously calls out all the bullshit, especially facing women, while making you feel like things are *actually* okay. Even brighter than before, thanks to this hilarious bighearted book." Gabrielle Union, New York Times bestselling author of We're Going to Need More Wine

"Delightfully recreates the experience of listening to Phoebe dish in person with the added bonus of getting see how words like 'relaysh' are spelled!" Chris Hayes, New York Times bestselling author of A Colony in a Nation

"Phoebe Robinson brings her infectious charm and utterly delightful sense of humor to her second essay collection, Everything's Trash, But It's Okay. From body image to contemporary feminism to our culture of overwork, Robinson offers deft cultural criticism and hilarious personal anecdotes that will make readers laugh, cringe, and cry. Everything may indeed be trash but writing like this reminds us that we're gonna make it through all the terrible things with honesty, laughter, and faith." Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author

Phoebe Robinson is a stand-up comedian, actress, and the author of the New York Times bestseller You Can't Touch My Hair. Most recently, she and Jessica Williams turned their hit WNYC Studios podcast, 2 Dope Queens, into four one-hour HBO specials. Robinson has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Conan, Broad City, Search Party, The Daily Show, and the Today show; she was also a staff writer on the final season of Portlandia. When not working in TV, she's the host of the critically acclaimed WNYC Studios interview podcast Sooo Many White Guys. She recently made her feature film debut in the Netflix comedy Ibiza.