Middle Schoolers Are Hijacking NPR’s Podcast Comment Sections

The phenomenon first surfaced last fall when the team behind the podcast Wild Card discovered a deluge of indecipherable emojis and cryptic abbreviations under their Spotify episodes. Producers initially dismissed the activity as bot traffic, reporting the suspicious behavior to Spotify. It took an intervention from audio producer Hannah Chin—a Gen Z staffer—to clarify that the supposed bots were actually middle schoolers too young for traditional social media accounts.

This is not the first time NPR has served as an accidental playground for youth. The network previously identified similar behavior on TED Radio Hour. When host Ira Glass finally tracked down one of the young participants to ask why they chose public radio as their hangout, the answer was brutally simple: they specifically searched for podcasts with low listener engagement to avoid adult interference. Glass, a veteran of three decades, admitted the feedback stung, noting the irony of his show being selected purely for its lack of a bustling audience.