GoKawiilAndy Walker / Android Authority
Many people are already AI-weary, including me. From producing bland content and replacing our jobs to water-hogging data centers and the existential doom risk, there’s a lot to hate about it. ‘AI slop’ has quickly entered our vocabulary, and for good reason. It’s high on that list of reasons to dislike the tech for many people, but we shouldn’t tar absolutely every bit of media churned out by AI tools with that brush. After my recent introduction to AI-generated podcasts created with NotebookLM, I’m ready to defend them — at least to a point.
It was Google’s excellent app that opened my eyes, and unlike half of my colleagues, I’ve never even used it myself. Welcome to 2026, where my second-hand AI experiences count as research.
Have you listened to an AI-generated podcast? 5 votes Yes, and I can see some benefit 40 % Yes, but I'm against the whole idea 0 % Not yet, but I'm open to trying them 40 % No, they're just more AI slop 20 %
What made me come around to NotebookLM
Joe Maring / Android Authority
I made this realization because I recently visited South Korea for the first time, and thought it might be useful to get a feel for the place before I arrived. Podcasts are my medium of choice for learning these days, so my natural instinct was to jump into my podcast app and see if there was a pod dedicated to Korean culture. After all, there’s one for almost everything else. After scrolling through a few that didn’t quite fit the bill, I came across ‘Understanding Korea, One Story at a Time’ by Jiwon Yoon, Ph.D. It seemed to be just the explainer on the country’s history and culture that I was looking for.
The thing is, Jiwon wasn’t the host of the early episodes I was listening to. She’s a Korean-born writer and former tenured professor who writes a Substack about Korean society. This involves extensive research, so she decided to dump all her notes, including those that didn’t make it into her Substack articles, into NotebookLM. As you may know by now, from there you can just use the Audio Overviews feature, and you’ve immediately got yourself a podcast episode. Jiwon explains that this is exactly what she’s done in the episode description.
I was in two minds about this. Instinctively, it didn’t feel quite right to have Korea explained to me by two hosts who are not only not Korean but don’t even exist. On the other hand, NotebookLM generates its Audio Overviews solely from the source material you give it, so the risk of sketchy references or outright hallucinations is much reduced. In this case, extensive notes were provided by a Korean native who knows the country better than the vast majority of people. I gave it a try, and was quickly sold on it.
I gave it a try, and was quickly sold on it.
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