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In one reported case, a group of children used Spotify podcast comment threads—including threads on NPR’s Wild Card episodes—as a place to chat. They reportedly found episodes with few existing comments so their conversation would be less likely to get mixed in with other discussion. The account describes one group, not a proven trend among middle schoolers.
What happened in the Spotify comment threads?
TechCrunch reported on September 25, 2026, that the team behind This American Life described producers noticing a burst of cryptic comments on Spotify episodes of NPR’s Wild Card. Producer Dave Blanchard first suspected bots and reported the posts. Audio producer Hannah Chin recognized patterns she associated with children chatting online. TechCrunch’s report and the episode transcript describe the account.
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Chin noticed display names, profile images and short exchanges that resembled familiar online conversations. She later saw public playlists with chat-oriented names that directed children to particular episode threads. In this account, playlists helped participants find a shared thread; it does not show that podcast comments or playlists generally serve as chat rooms.
Why did the group choose podcast episodes with few comments?
In an interview with host Ira Glass, a 14-year-old participant identified as Ella said the group looked for podcasts with few comments so they would not be mixed in with other commenters. Her explanation was specific to her group, not evidence of a general preference among children or Spotify users.
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“Um, I think we just, like, looked for podcasts that didn’t have many comments.”
Ella said the group had started using comments on a video podcast available on Spotify after a show was banned, then moved among podcast episode threads. She estimated that the core group included “maybe 20 kids,” mostly girls and theater kids. That was her estimate, not an independently verified count.
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What this story does—and does not—show
- It was a repurposed comment feature. The reported conversations took place in Spotify podcast threads, not on an NPR-operated general-purpose social network.
- The comments initially looked like bot activity. Blanchard suspected bots; Chin recognized patterns she associated with children chatting.
- It is one reported group. The cited account gives no survey, population estimate or other evidence establishing how common this behavior is among middle schoolers.
- It is not a finding about safety or moderation. The account does not establish that Spotify comments are private or safe for children, nor does it document current platform moderation policies.
TechCrunch’s account and the available transcript describe a child speaking with parental permission and a parent in the car; that detail does not amount to a general safety policy. The sources also do not establish whether Spotify’s comment features or policies have changed since the episode.
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