Kids Transform NPR Podcast Comments into a Vibrant Group Chat

Middle schoolers, likely restricted from accessing other apps and social networks, have turned the comment section of a Spotify episode from NPR’s Wild Card into an unexpected group chat. In a recent episode of This American Life, host Ira Glass explores how these kids ended up there and the reasons behind it. Ultimately, it highlights their creativity in navigating the limitations imposed on them.

When Glass asked one of the kids why they chose this specific podcast, the response was, “We just, like, looked for podcasts that didn’t have many comments.” This, understandably, stung a bit for Glass.

Initially, showrunner Dave Blanchard suspected the comments were the work of some peculiar bots. “It was just like gibberish,” he shared with Glass during the episode. The posts were “clipped, weird, incoherent,” filled with emojis and shorthand, prompting him to delete them. However, one of the accounts remarked, “so it deleted my com.” This led Blanchard to share screenshots of the comments in NPR’s Slack.

Producer Hannah Chin quickly recognized the behavior as that of kids rather than bots. “I was a kid who used weird parts of the internet not as they were originally designed to talk to my friends,” they noted. “I talked back and forth with my friends on Google Docs,” showcasing just how inventive kids can be when they’re cut off from conventional social media. A similar situation occurred last year with Ted Radio Hour.