Stephen Miller’s America
The Slow Newscast
Alice Sandelson
4.6 • 894 Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Miller is the United States Homeland Security Advisor. But the vague sounding title belies his immense influence with Donald Trump behind the scenes. He’s better understood as the architect of some of the US’s most audacious recent policies - the capturing of Venezuelan President Maduro, the rollout of ICE enforcement through communities, and a threat to capture Greenland. So what can he tell us about what America will do next?
Credits:
Reporter: Stephen Armstrong
Reporter/Producers: Madeleine Parr, Poppy Bullard, Jonathan Lewis
Sound design: Dominic Delargy
Artwork: Lucy Stevenson
Editors: Matt Russell & Jasper Corbett
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Observer. |
| 0:10.0 | Hello, I'm Alexi Mostris, and you're listening to the slow newscast from The Observer. |
| 0:17.9 | Today's show starts with a joke, except it's not a joke, or we're not sure anyway. |
| 0:24.8 | It's about torture of all things, and it's made by a 17-year-old kid more than 20 years ago. |
| 0:32.9 | This kid will grow up to be someone very important indeed. |
| 0:41.7 | Stephen Miller is Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, |
| 0:45.2 | and he's shaping America almost as much as his boss. |
| 0:52.0 | And today, he's still saying outrageous things about immigrants, about America, |
| 0:55.6 | where you're never quite sure if he really means it. |
| 0:58.5 | And there's actually a name for that. |
| 1:00.7 | It's called Poe's Law. |
| 1:05.9 | If you've spent any time on social media, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. |
| 1:11.5 | Someone will say something awful online and they'll get called out for it. |
| 1:16.0 | But instead of apologising, they'll say they were only joking, |
| 1:19.8 | or being sarcastic, or not speaking literally. |
| 1:23.9 | In other words, you're the one being hypersensitive. |
| 1:31.0 | The effect is to make it impossible to tell if anyone is being serious. And that's a big problem when they're running the most powerful country on earth. |
| 1:36.4 | If the king of Poe's law is Donald Trump, the guy who once said President Obama founded |
| 1:42.5 | ISIS, then the Prince of Poe is Stephen Miller. |
| 1:47.0 | Here's the show, Stephen Miller's America, reported by Stephen Armstrong, Madeline |
| 1:54.1 | Parr, Poppy Bullard and Jonathan Lewis. I hope you enjoy it. |
| 2:06.9 | I think the ideal solution would be to cut off their fingers. |
... |
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