NotebookLM now moonlights as my entertainment consultant

NotebookLM has become my go-to productivity tool. I’ve become incredibly efficient at working my way through it and used it for both work and personal tasks — plus I’ve been able to share my successes with it you, reader. It’s just an easier way to study and learn about something. At the end of the day, there’s only so much time to spend learning, and NotebookLM helps me learn faster.

Because I’ve learned how to use NotebookLM well, I’ve started to incorporate it into my entertainment consumption. Yes, I’ve taken the easy way out and pretty much turned my free time into the best use of my time. I’ve shifted from using it strictly for tasks to letting it help me unwind, using it to teach me more about the shows, movies, books, and other media I’m consuming.

It may not be how AI was positioned, but it sure can be helpful in saving me time. You may not want to use NotebookLM for some of these, but they are all valid ways to do so. If you want to optimize your entertainment consumption time, you should do so with NotebookLM — especially in the ways I’ll explain below.

I used it to learn a new hobby

It could very well go terribly, but I’m willing to try

Imagine trying to pick up a new skill. Maybe it’s crocheting. Maybe it’s learning how to shoot hoops. You could spend hours online watching video after video just to get started, but I don’t have hours. And hours are exactly what it takes to practice and get good at something. I want to skip the endless learning phase and get to the good stuff. So, I use NotebookLM to help me dive right into the deep end.

I decided I wanted to learn all I could about becoming a stand-up comedia. Do I think I’d be good? That remains to be seen. Would I like to try? Absolutely. I used the Discover button at the top left of NotebookLM and typed in “how to become a stand-up comedian.” Rather than having to upload links for it to pull from, NotebookLM did the searching for me and found 10 links detailing how to become a stand-up comedian. I wanted to feel like I contributed too, so I found some George Carlin stand-up on YouTube and added that to the sources.

With all that material loaded in, I started asking questions — and quickly found myself learning about joke structure, timing, delivery, and even which trends to embrace or avoid. It turned out to be a surprisingly deep well of knowledge. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to hit an open mic… but first, it’s time to start actually practicing this new hobby.

I used it to “watch” a TV show

Don’t worry: I was never going to watch this show anyway

If you’re like me, you have a list of movies and TV series that you want to eventually watch. Many of them are from suggestions from friends and family that have enjoyed them and are shocked I haven’t gotten around to watching yet. One of those shows is Lost, the ABC drama created by Damon Lindelof about a group of plane crash survivors who are on an island. If that’s all you know about Lost, you’re like me. Despite its popularity, I never did get around to it.

I don’t have the time to watch six seasons worth of a show that I’m only slightly interested in. Luckily for me, NotebookLM does the “watching” for me. I uploaded the Wikipedia pages for all six seasons and then had it create a Video Overview for me as well as an Audio Overview. The Video Overview actually assumed I knew more about the show than I did. It used phrases that made it seem like it was telling me things I already knew and was just summarizing it all. The Audio Overview was a more in-depth discussion by two AI hosts about the series.

Both of these were helpful for me in understanding the gist of the show (although I’m confused about this smoke monster thing, which it seems like most of the Internet still is too).

I used it to ‘reread’ one of my favorite books

I hadn’t remembered all the details, and Google brought it all back

I was thinking about a book I loved as a kid the other day and I wanted to refresh my memory. The book was The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, and I was trying to remind myself how the book ended. Rather than skimming the plot in a browser, I wanted a little more than that. So, I uploaded an NPR article about the book as well as the Sparknotes summary to NotebookLM.

I used the Mind Map feature to breakdown the themes of the book, the characters and more. I remembered it was a cleverly written book and a very funny read and I was pleased to see Mind Map included a section on that. I also really appreciated the Related Works part that it branched out, giving me similar books to The Westing Game that I immediately wanted to check out. It was also fun to see the Reader Experience, which summarized the NPR article about that author’s love of the book. It refreshed my memory and brought me back to being a kid again.