NPR Staffer Mistook Kids' Secret Spotify Chat for Bots

Kids turned low-traffic NPR Spotify comments into a secret group chat

When Dave Blanchard, a producer at NPR's Wild Card, saw gibberish comments on a Spotify podcast episode, he assumed they were bots and deleted them. But a younger colleague, Hannah Chinn, recognized the behavior: kids were using the comments as a secret group chat. They created playlists named 'chat here' and flocked to low-traffic NPR shows to avoid detection. One 14-year-old explained they chose NPR because it didn't seem popular. The story reveals how Gen Alpha repurposes platforms in unexpected ways.