Kids turned the comment section of an NPR podcast into a group chat
Middle schoolers apparently used the Spotify comment section beneath an episode of NPR’s Wild Card as an informal group chat. The Verge reported that the students may have been blocked from other apps and social networks, while a new episode of This American Life examined how they found the comment section and why they used it.
Middle schoolers apparently turned the Spotify comment section beneath an episode of NPR’s Wild Card into an informal group chat, according to The Verge.
The students were likely blocked from other apps and social networks, the report said. A new episode of This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass, examined how the children arrived at the comment section and why they used it.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
What restrictions on other apps or social networks led the students to use the podcast comment section?
How did Spotify’s comment features make this kind of group conversation possible?
What responsibility do podcast and platform operators have when children use public comment spaces this way?
Would the group have formed elsewhere if access to other social networks had not been blocked?
YOUR QUESTION
Does this story leave you with another question?
Send us the question the report did not answer. It may become the next question IAQ investigates.
GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · SEPTEMBER 2026