Middle Schoolers Turn NPR Podcast Comments Into Secret Group Chat

Middle schoolers are finding unconventional ways to maintain social connections after being blocked from traditional social media apps and networks. According to reporting from The Verge and TechCrunch, some students have begun using the Spotify comment sections of NPR podcasts as impromptu group chats.

The phenomenon was highlighted in a recent episode of *This American Life*, where host Ira Glass detailed how the team behind the NPR podcast *Wild Card* discovered a surge of baffling comments under their episodes last fall. Showrunner Dave Blanchard initially believed the posts were a strange form of bot traffic, describing the content as "clipped, weird, incoherent" gibberish filled with shorthand and emojis.

Blanchard shared screenshots of the activity in NPR's Slack and reported the posts to Spotify. However, audio producer Hannah Chin recognized the behavior as a hallmark of youth resourcefulness. Chin, who identified as Gen Z, noted that they personally used "weird parts of the internet" not as originally intended to communicate with friends, citing the use of Google Docs for back-and-forth conversations.

When Glass questioned one of the middle schoolers about why they chose this specific podcast, the student explained that they simply looked for podcasts that lacked many comments.

This is not an isolated incident within the network. TechCrunch reports that NPR observed similar behavior occurring on the *TED Radio Hour* show last year. The trend underscores a pattern of creative work-arounds used by younger users to bypass adult-imposed digital restrictions.