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

In a surprising twist, low-traffic podcast comments on NPR's Spotify platform were discovered to be a secret group chat for a group of middle school children. Public radio show host Dave Blanchard noticed unusual activity in the comments section of an episode featuring writer Elizabeth Gilbert. Initially assuming the posts were bot-generated, Dave deleted the comments, only to find another indicating the thread had been removed.

This led him to seek advice from NPR's Slack channels, where a younger employee, Hannah Chinn, recognized the comments as belonging to a group of young kids. Hannah, who grew up in a conservative household with limited internet access, deduced that the children were using Spotify comment threads as a chat platform due to blocked apps on their phones.

The children created a playlist named "Let's chat here" and used it to post messages in the podcast's comment section. This creative use of the platform suggests the kids were simply excited to connect with each other and acknowledge each other's presence in the chat.