What is NotebookLM?
A few months ago, Google released NotebookLM, an AI-powered research assistant. It allows you to upload your own content—such as PDFs, website URLs, YouTube videos, or even books—and interact with it. Think of it as ChatGPT that focuses specifically on the knowledge you provide, rather than relying solely on its pre-trained data.
What's the Podcast Feature About?
More recently, Google's team released a new feature, turning everything you've shared so far, into conversational audio, effectively creating a podcast, where two speakers present your content. In this podcast, two speakers present your content, breaking it down with a touch of opinion and editorial insight. Here's a quick sample:
Why is it Good?
What makes this feature special is how natural the conversation between the hosts feels. Organic interruptions, timely comments, and even disfluencies (e.g., "uhm," "ehm") make it sound authentic. The depth of discussion based on the knowledge base is impressive, and there's even banter between the hosts as you can hear in the sample. From a technical standpoint, the generated script for the two speakers is excellent, incorporating these disfluencies, and the voices sound very realistic.
How Can You Use It, and Where Does It Get Tricky?
While NotebookLM offers a great way to turn your content into audio, it's not a content production studio—you have no editing control over the generated podcast. If you want to add your own podcast name, modify lines, include music, or maintain consistency for your audience, NotebookLM doesn't support that. The platform's intent is to make your information more digestible through audio, primarily for personal listening.
And That's Where Wondercraft Comes In
Wondercraft is a creative studio and hence offers you full control to edit and customize the generated content. You can add your podcast name, modify lines, include music, and maintain consistency for your audience—turning generated content into a personalized podcast experience.
TL;DR
- NotebookLM: Create an audio overview of your content for personal listening.
- Wondercraft: Produce a polished podcast for your audience.