#MondayMotivation: Our Woman of the Week is Phoebe Robinson!
By Emily Scott
Every Monday, Culturess chooses one woman in pop culture to be our Woman of the Week. These women inspire and empower us to kick ass, take names, fight the good fight, and live our best lives. Today, our Woman of the Week is Phoebe Robinson!
I don’t know about you, but after the past year, I’ve only wanted to do only two things. The first is to laugh. And the second is to smash the ever-loving hell out of the patriarchy. Luckily, there’s one person that I can always count on to inspire me to do both. And that woman is Phoebe Robinson.
The multi-hyphenate artist got her start as a writer by working on MTV’s Girl Code and as a consultant on Broad City. But she started gaining a wide audience mostly from her blog, Blaria (a portmanteau of “Black Daria”). Various publications have featured Blaria as well as her other writing. And her work as a standup comedian over many years led to appearances on several late night shows.
But this past year has been Robinson’s best yet. With her “work wife” Jessica Williams, she started the highly popular and hilarious podcast 2 Dope Queens. Robinson and Williams host the WNYC podcast together. It primarily features comedians who are women, queer, or people of color. The idea behind the show was to promote new voices in comedy who may be underrepresented in other comedy spaces. But don’t take my word for it. The podcast reached #1 in the iTunes charts literally 2 days after it was initially released. So, obviously, it’s incredible.
Robinson’s success as a host of 2 Dope Queens led to a second awesome podcast, which Robinson hosts herself. On Sooo Many White Guys, Robinson interviews creative individuals and artists about their lives and work. Each interviewee is a person of color, a woman, queer, or any combination of those identities. But once a season, Robinson will feature a “Token White Guy” – the way that other podcasts will occasionally have a token woman or person of color.
While her interviews are often incredibly insightful and heart-warming, she also doesn’t shy away from controversial topics. In the most recent episodes, she and Lena Dunham had a great conversation about Dunham’s history with intersectional feminism. And Robinson also called out Charlamagne Tha God on some comments he made about women of color. While she is a generous host, didn’t back down from challenging him. And that’s what we love most about her.
As if it wasn’t enough to have two incredibly successful and amazing podcasts coming out, Robinson also recently released her first book. You Can’t Touch My Hair (And Other Things I Still Have To Explain) features essays by Robinson on the topics of pop culture, race, gender, comedy, acting, and everything else in between. Not to mention, you can catch her as Suki on the new Amazon show I Love Dick.
Phoebe Robinson is a straight up powerhouse. She’s a writer, actress, comedian, podcast queen, and social justice activist. In everything she does, she promotes the voices and experiences of those who are underrepresented in entertainment and mainstream media. She does everything with an awareness of the world around her, and manages to give us insight and the giggles all at once. Her insistence on social consciousness in her projects is something we wish all artists would adopt. And besides all that, she’s just amazing at her jobs. She’s funny as hell, an incredibly moving writer, a talented actress, and an inspiring host, all in one dope queen. Robinson is going to change the world – one interview question, one page, and one joke at a time.
Thank you for everything you do, Phoebe Robinson!
Your task this week is to let your passion get into whatever you’re doing. Working, playing with your kids, reading, cooking – do it all with your whole self, just like Robinson does.
Next: 7 Feminist Podcasts to Smash the Patriarchy To
You can find Phoebe Robinson’s work here:
2 Dope Queens: Listen to Robinson’s podcast with Jessica Williams on the WNYC website. Or download it on iTunes/wherever you normally get your podcasts.
Sooo Many White Guys: Listen to Robinson’s solo podcast on the WNYC website. Or download it on iTunes/wherever you normally get your podcasts.
You Can’t Touch My Hair (And Other Things I Still Have To Explain): Robinson’s New York Times bestselling book can be purchased on Amazon or at bookstores.
I Love Dick: Amazon is shooting the first season now, but you can catch the pilot on Amazon now.