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Kids turned the comment section of an NPR podcast into a group chat

Sep 26, 2026, 12:32 PM CDT

Read full article at The Verge
Middle schoolers, likely blocked from other apps and social networks, apparently turned the Spotify comment section under an episode of NPR's Wild Card into an impromptu group chat. In a new episode of This American Life , host Ira Glass digs into how the kids landed there and why. But it mostly boils down to kids getting creative to work around the restrictions placed on them. When Glass asked on

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No independent verification from NPR, Spotify, or the students involved Scale of the activity (how many kids, duration) Details on how the comment section functioned as a chat

Opinion vs. reporting

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mixed