What Next | The Spectacle of “Alligator Alcatraz” Is the Point

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Built in just eight days, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem toured “Alligator Alcatraz,” a migrant detention facility built on a disused airstrip in the Florida Everglades. Even before Trump touched down in South Florida, branded merchandise was being sold. Soon after he headed back to Washington, the first detainees were brought in. Guest: Sommer Brugal, Miami reporter for Axios. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I had the absolute pleasure of speaking to Pamela Anderson.
0:04.2	All thanks to the Dove Self-Eesteem Project.
0:07.1	We speak about the impact Y2K has had on women's body confidence and how Pamela has regained control.
0:12.9	The Dove Self-Esteen project is an amazing initiative supported by science-backed methodology
0:17.8	to help us improve our relationship with our bodies.
0:20.8	To find more
0:21.4	body confidence-building exercises, go to dove.com forward slash Y2K. That's Y2K spelled W-H-Y2K.
0:34.3	Last week, I watched President Trump's trip to the Florida Everglades, so you don't have to.
0:43.2	President Trump traveled to Florida today to inspect the side of a controversial new migrant detention center.
0:48.9	Newscasters said he was there to visit a new detention facility.
0:52.2	But that's a pretty grand name for what he showed TV cameras.
0:56.4	Tents set up on an airstrip in the middle of a swamp.
1:00.8	Inside were bunk beds behind Chainlink.
1:04.4	Surrounded by dangerous wildlife and oppressive heat,
1:07.6	the administration is calling the facility Alligator Alcatraz.
1:14.4	Can I just take a point of privilege here?
1:16.7	Because I want to say I hate this name.
1:20.0	Alligator Alcatraz sounds like a late-night movie on the sci-fi channel.
1:24.5	It's enough to make you forget that this is real life. And this administration plans to
1:29.6	send actual people here. People whose humanity, they are steadily eroding with every press
1:36.7	conference. Anyway, two weeks ago, what was this facility? There wasn't a facility.
1:48.1	Summer Brugall writes for Axios in Miami.
	...

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