Thanks to the wonders of AI and an idea from Ashley Budd, I am entering the world of podcasting with a new feature I’m calling LitLinks.
LitLinks is an occasional compilation of literary- and writing-related content posted right here on the blog and also fed into Google’s NotebookLM AI research assistant to create an audio summary of all those links. That way, if you don’t have the time to read all those great links, you can listen to the podcast-style presentation while driving, jogging, doing the dishes, or avoiding your daily chores.
The idea for LitLinks comes from two sources:
- Me, who has been tagging and flagging and collecting cool writing-related content from all over the internet that I’d love to share with readers but don’t want to spend all the time it would take to write about each and every one.
- The aforementioned Ashley Budd, co-author of a cool book about email marketing called Mailed It! (I featured Ashley and co-author Dayana “Day” Kibilds in a Friday Five last September) and a must-read e-newsletter. In her latest newsletter, Ashley passed along a neat trick for creating a podcast using NotebookLM. It’s a really simple four-step process:
- Open NotebookLM
- Add sources (web links, docs, audio files, etc.)
- Go to the Studio tab and select “Deep Dive conversation” with two hosts
- Generate your podcast
I listened to Ashley’s sample AI-generated podcast, and I’ve got to tell you, it was quite well done. Much better than some computer-generated podcasts I’ve heard elsewhere — and much better than I could do with my own scratchy, geezery voice.
Introducing LitLinks, volume 1, Number 1
Without further ado, as they say, here is the first edition of LitLinks. Links below for your reading pleasure and the AI-generated podcast here for your listening pleasure.
- Former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter on the golden age of magazines, via LitHub
- Should AI write fiction? OpenAI did, and a famous author called it ‘pastiche garbage’
- Looking inside the slush pile — and your odds of getting out of it
- Writer/substacker Henry Oliver on how to have good taste
- What authors can do about the LibGen data set, from the Society of Authors
I hope you’ll give the podcast a listen and let me know what you think.
AI-generated image
Andy writes! 