Google NotebookLM: AI, Ingest, Create a Podcast | Turn the Lens Ep38

English Transcript
Google NotebookLM: AI, Ingest, Create a Podcast | Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick Ep38

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Cold Open
Okay.  
In Three. Two, One.

Jeff Frick:
Hey, welcome back everybody.  Jeff Frick here. Coming to you from the home studio for another episode of 'Turn the Lens'.  

And, you know, you almost need a friend to help you get through this AI stuff.  It's coming so fast and furious.  So we've got something a little bit different for this edition of our AI adventure. So a friend of mine reached out and he asked me if I'd heard of this new thing called notebooklm.google.com.  Or excuse me, notebooklm.google.com.  It's a Google notebook AI tool.  

And, you know, one of the challenges with, say, ChatGPT and some of the other tools is trying to get your own data in there.  And there's things like RAG [Retrieval-Augmented Generation], and there's a lot of software ways that you can get your own data in there to make it more relevant to your own search.  But as a non-coder, you know, it doesn't work so well yet.  I'm sure it will work better later, but this is an interesting twist on it, so definitely worth checking it out.  So if you go to, https://notebooklm.google.com/ that's https://notebooklm.google.com/.  You can start loading it with documents.  

And you know, recently on the Jack Smith January 6th trial, he just released, I think it was, let me see, a 1,300-page appendix, highly redacted, so there's lots of blank pages and pages with black.  So it's really hard to get through the whole thing.  So I thought, you know, what I'll just do is I'll load the January 6th trial library into this machine and see what comes back.  So here's what I loaded.  I loaded the October 2nd filing. It was 165 pages, a PDF, and I'll put all the links in the notes below if you want to check these things out.  Or you can do whatever you want to load into yours.  I put in this new October 18th appendix. That's 1,353 pages.  And then I added the January 6th final report, which is 845 pages.  So, quick and dirty math—that's 1,300, 2,000, close to 2,500 pages, thereabouts.  2,200, 2,300, 2,400, something like that into this thing.  And then there's all types of things you can do once you've loaded your data into the system, and you can add YouTube videos, you can add all types of things.  You can get an FAQ, you can get a study guide, you can get a table of contents, you can get a timeline, a briefing document, as I said, a summary. But you can start to also ask it questions. Which is pretty cool.  

But another feature that it has, which I'd never seen before, and this is what I really want to experiment and share with you today, is—you can actually generate a podcast.  So, it will generate a two-host or a host and guest talking head podcast with the data that you loaded in.  So, with that said, I went ahead and generated a podcast.  It’s about a 15-minute conversation between a male and a female host.  I wanted to share that with you today.  I went ahead and used some of the Adobe tools to add a talking animation head.  I don't play with the animation very much. I'm not very good at it, but since I play in video,  it's nice to have something to look at while the audio plays.  But this is a first-generation cut, you'll notice there are a couple of little hiccups here and there,  but generally pretty amazing that you can take 2,500 pages of documentation and load it into this thing. And I think it took about 6 or 7, 8 minutes to generate this MP3,  this file that I turned into a podcast.  So without further ado, let me share the podcast,  of basically ingesting the January 6th trial information.  Here it goes, about 15 minutes.

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Male Host
All right, so you ready to unpack one of the most talked about days in recent history?  

Female Guest
January 6th.  

Male Host
You got it.  You sent over the January 6th report and some filings from Jack Smith's investigation.  Looks like we're going for the full picture here.  

Female Guest:
Absolutely.  And it's more than just the day itself,  

Male Host:
Right, it's about understanding the strategy.  The people, all those behind-the-scenes details.  

Female Guest:
Exactly. Those details are essential.  This wasn't just a sudden eruption.  It was a series of calculated choices.  Take for instance, the foundation of it all. The big lie, what the report calls it.  This wasn't just Trump claiming victory.  

Male Host:
It was planned.  

Female Guest:
Premeditated strategy.  Planned well in advance.

Male Host:
Okay, so break this down.  How could it be planned?  If nobody knew who was going to win?  

Female Guest:
Because it wasn't about who was going to win,  but about controlling the narrative.  

Male Host:
So like... Spin  

Female Guest:
In a way, yes.  See, the report reveals that Trump got advice, right? They told him that early election results might favor him  

Male Host:
because of how votes were counted.  

Female Guest:
You got it.  In-person votes tend to get counted faster than mail-in ballots,  and those [mail-in ballots] were heavily favored by Democratic voters in 2020.  

Male Host:
Interesting.  So there's this potential for an early lead that might not actually mean anything in the end.  

Female Guest:
Exactly. They even had a name for it—the ‘Red Mirage’, a potentially misleading early lead for Trump.  

Male Host:
Okay, I'm starting to see where you're going with this. So they knew about this ‘Red Mirage’,  

Female Guest:
and knowing that they planned for Trump to immediately declare victory if he had any lead on election night, no matter how many votes were left to be counted.  

Male Host:
Wow, that's bold. To say the least.

Female Guest:
And we're not just speculating here. The report actually cites communications about this very scenario. Like there's one from Tom Fitton. You know he was President of Judicial Watch back then, urging the White House to prepare for this exact thing.  

Male Host:
So it was premeditated. This wasn't about accepting the results. It was about controlling the story before the full picture was even in.  

Female Guest:
And sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the process itself.  

Male Host:
It's incredible how much planning went into this.  

Female Guest:
Mm-hmm.  

Male Host:
And it wasn't just about controlling the story, was it? There was a very real pressure, especially on some state officials.  

Female Guest:
Oh, absolutely. And the report really highlights that call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State [Brad] Raffensperger.  

Male Host:
Chilling phone call.  

Female Guest:
Is it ever. Trump straight up pressured him to find enough votes to overturn Georgia's results. Even implied Raffensperger could be in legal trouble if he didn't play ball.  

Male Host:
Wow. Talk about an abuse of power. And it didn't stop with state officials either, right?  The report also mentions Trump trying to use the Department of Justice, the DOJ.  

Female Guest:
Absolutely. Trying to get them to back his claims. Even considered replacing the attorney general with someone who would, Well, you know.  

Male Host:
Do his bidding.  

Female Guest:
Essentially. See, the attorney general oversees the DOJ, and they investigate things like election fraud.  If Trump could put someone loyal to him in that position,  

Male Host:
That could have changed everything.  

Female Guest:
Huge implications.  

Male Host:
Wasn't Jeffrey Clark a DOJ lawyer involved in all this?  

Female Guest:
Yes. Clark was more than willing to go along with Trump's plan.  

Male Host:
And what was the plan, exactly?  

Female Guest:
Trump considered appointing him acting attorney general because Clark was ready.  No hesitation to send this letter.  

Male Host:
Letter to who?  

Female Guest:
Several states.  And the letter urged them to basically ignore the legitimate election results.  

Male Host:
Ignore the results.  What would they look at instead?  

Female Guest:
These illegitimate slates of electors put forward by, you guessed it, the Trump campaign.  

Male Host:
Wait.  Alternate electors? What is that? Some kind of...  

Female Guest:
Imagine each state's electors, the people who officially cast votes for president based on the state's popular vote.  These alternate electors were basically a group of Trump loyalists claiming falsely to be the legitimate electors.  

Male Host:
Even though Biden had won those states.  

Female Guest:
Exactly.  So you've got Trump trying to install people who'd back him, even if it meant undermining the entire election process.  

Male Host:
It's unsettling how far this went.  And then there's that tweet.  

Female Guest:
"Be There. Will be Wild!"  

Male Host:
I remember thinking at the time, it was reckless, but I had no idea.  The report directly connects that language to what happened on January 6th.  

Female Guest:
It wasn't just reckless.  It was a spark to a powder keg mobilizing extremist groups.  Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, who were key players in the violence that day.  

Male Host:
And the report actually shows these groups were inspired by that tweet.  

Female Guest:
Directly. There's social media posts, messages where they specifically reference it as a call to action, their green light to go to [Washington] DC.  

Male Host:
Unbelievable.  

Female Guest:
Yeah.  

Male Host:
And it wasn't just these groups, was it?  

Female Guest:
No. The report also shows how Trump's words motivated thousands of his supporters, people who were already convinced because of the big lie that the election was stolen.  

Male Host:
It's just horrifying how it all played out.  And then amidst all that chaos, there are those 187 minutes that I think still haunt a lot of people.  

Female Guest:
The 187 minutes between the start of the riot and when Trump finally told his supporters to leave the Capitol.  

Male Host:
187 minutes where he refused to act. His own Vice President [Pence] was being hunted by a mob, and nothing. What was he even doing during that time? What did the report find?  

Female Guest:
Well, that's where things get especially interesting and very troubling. The report paints a picture of a president who was more focused on holding on to power than on actually protecting the nation. The report describes a scene just chaotic in the Oval Office during those 187 minutes.  

Male Host:
So paint the picture for us. What's happening while the Capitol is under attack?  

Female Guest:
White House aides practically begging Trump to call off the mob. To tell them to go home. Members of Congress, even his own family, trying to get through to him frantically. And Trump glued to the television.  

Male Host:
He's watching this happen.  

Female Guest:
Watching it unfold like it was some kind of spectacle put on just for him.  

Male Host:
It’s just. I can't even imagine. He's watching his supporters storm the Capitol, putting people's lives at risk. And he's

Female Guest:
doing nothing.  At least that's what the report details. And even when he does finally release that video message, tells the rioters to go home.  Well, it's full of contradictions.  

Male Host:
You mean the one where he tells them he loves them?  

Female Guest:
That's the one. Even as he's telling them to leave, he can't bring himself to condemn what they did. Calls them very special. Says he understands their anger. It's almost like  

Male Host:
Like he's trying to appease them even then.  

Female Guest:
Almost. And get this. Releasing that video. Not even his idea. At least not initially.  

Male Host:
Really.  

Female Guest:
According to the report, it took a lot of back and forth, his advisers really pushing him. Can you imagine having to push a president to tell a violent mob to stay peaceful?  

Male Host:
It's mind blowing. It really makes you question his state of mind at that moment.  

Female Guest:
And what about Pence during all this? He's in the Capitol literally being evacuated.  

Male Host:
And Trump's

Female Guest:
nowhere to be found.  

Male Host:
Exactly.  

Female Guest:
Yeah, it's a stark contrast. The report really highlights how Pence, facing this direct threat, He steps up, fulfills his duty.  

Male Host:
His constitutional duty.  

Female Guest:
Right. He's in constant communication [with] military leaders, even giving orders  

Male Host:
To deploy the National Guard.  

Female Guest:
Yes. In Trump's absence. Pence is making sure the electoral votes can be counted. And the president is now totally derelict in his duty.  

Male Host:
It's incredible. You've got the vice president, someone who is so loyal to Trump, basically having to become  

Female Guest:
Acting president.  

Male Host:
It's like something out of a movie.  

Female Guest:
And that's what the report drives home. While the Capitol is under siege, elected officials fearing for their lives, the actual president of the United States is totally absent. Not part of any decision making. It really makes you question his understanding of the presidency of the oath he swore to uphold.  

Male Host:
Absolutely. The report also mentioned something about Trump wanting to join the march to the Capitol himself.  

Female Guest:
Yeah. According to witnesses, he was insistent on it. Even threw a tantrum when the Secret Service told him it was too dangerous.  

Male Host:
Hold on. He wanted to be with the mob as they stormed the Capitol.  

Female Guest:
That's what multiple witnesses say.  Including a Secret Service agent. They claim he was furious when they told him he couldn't go.  

Male Host:
But I thought I read that Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, denied that in his book.  

Female Guest:
Meadows claims Trump never intended to actually go to the Capitol, but the report directly contradicts that because of the firsthand testimony of those who were there.

Male Host:
So why would Meadows, you know,  

Female Guest:
Try to cover it up?  

Male Host:
Yeah,  

Female Guest:
It's a good question. And this back and forth between Meadows’ version and what others have said, it raises questions about his role in all of this. Unfortunately, we don't have all the answers. The report talks about how some key Republican lawmakers, Kevin McCarthy, for example,  refused to comply with subpoenas and all that,  

Male Host:
stonewalling the investigation.  

Female Guest:
Essentially. And that obviously makes it harder to get to the full truth, to figure out the extent of the coordination between Trump and members of Congress in the lead-up to January 6th.  

Male Host:
So we've got Trump pushing the big lie, pressuring state officials, trying to put his own people in the DOJ, inciting his supporters with that tweet.  

Female Guest:
Yeah. And then he's essentially missing in action for 187 minutes while the Capitol is under attack.  

Female Guest:
It's a lot.  

Male Host:
It's starting to feel less like a spontaneous riot and more like  

Female Guest:
an attempted coup. And that gets to the core of what Jack Smith's investigation is looking at whether Trump's actions, his inaction during those 187 minutes, add up to a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruct an official proceeding,  

Male Host:
Which are...  

Female Guest:
Very serious charges.  

Male Host:
And his court filings, they seem to be  

Female Guest:
building a case.  

Male Host:
Yeah.  

Female Guest:
They do.  One filing, for example, argues that Trump's pressure on Pence to overturn the election results was completely outside his authority as president.  

Male Host:
And therefore

Female Guest:
Not protected. No presidential immunity for something like that.  

Male Host:
Because what he was asking Pence to do was...  

Female Guest:
illegal.  

Male Host:
Yeah.  

Female Guest:
Exactly. Smith, he cites all these legal experts who agree.  

Male Host:
Yeah.  

Female Guest:
The Vice President's role, counting those electoral votes, is ceremonial. Pence had zero legal authority to reject electors or change the outcome. What Trump was proposing was, well, it was a coup.  

Male Host:
But trying to make it sound legal.  

Female Guest:
Exactly.  

Male Host:
So Trump was demanding that Pence violate the Constitution.  

Female Guest:
That's the argument. And the filings, they go even deeper, detailing the pressure on state officials, attempts to weaponize the DOJ. His role in inciting the riot itself.  

Male Host:
It's a lot of evidence.  

Female Guest:
It is. But it's important to remember this is just what's been made public.  

Male Host:
There could be more.  

Female Guest:
Oh, there's definitely more we haven't seen yet.  

Male Host:
What about this scheme with the fake electors?  

Female Guest:
Ahhhh yes, the fake electors. Another tactic. The Trump campaign organized these groups, individuals in a few different states, all loyalists, to declare themselves the legitimate electors.  

Male Host:
Even though Biden won those states.  

Female Guest:
You got it.  

Male Host:
But how could they think that would actually work?  

Female Guest:
It was a longshot. Even some of Trump's own advisers thought so. The idea was to create chaos, disrupt the official count. They were banking on Pence. You know, he was overseeing the count to use these fake slates to justify rejecting the actual results.  

Male Host:
So basically create enough confusion that...  

Female Guest:
Yeah.  

Male Host:
The election would have to be decided by...  

Female Guest:
Congress, potentially declaring Trump the winner,  

Male Host:
but they would have never

Female Guest:
gone along with it.  

Male Host:
Right. It seems farfetched even for...  

Female Guest:
Trump.  

Male Host:
Yeah.  

Female Guest:
It was dubious legally and ethically. But it just shows you how desperate he was to hold on to power.

Male Host:
It's almost funny, in a way. If it weren't so terrifying.  

Female Guest:
Exactly. A blatant attempt to just toss out democracy, the will of the people. And it wasn't just about political gamesmanship, either.  

Male Host:
The money.  

Female Guest:
The money. The report goes into detail about how the Trump campaign, the RNC, they use these claims of election fraud, totally baseless. To raise millions of dollars  

Male Host:
from his own supporters,  

Female Guest:
telling them they needed to fight back against a stolen election.  

Male Host:
And then they use that money to,

Female Guest:
among other things, pay off campaign debt, funding Trump's new PAC. Very little actually went to legitimate legal challenges.  

Male Host:
So they were deceiving their own supporters  

Female Guest:
for personal gain.  

Male Host:
It's just appalling.  

Female Guest:
[laughter]  Let's shift gears a bit. The report also talks about foreign influence.  

Male Host:
It does. And while it doesn't find any direct foreign interference in the election itself.  

Female Guest:
Okay.

Male Host:  
It highlights how foreign actors, especially Russia,  

Female Guest:
they saw an opportunity. They saw the divisions, the tension, and they took it. Social media, online forums, even traditional media, they used it all.  

Male Host:
To spread what exactly?  

Female Guest:
Disinformation. Conspiracy theories encourage violence, distrust.  

Male Host:
They were watching us tear ourselves apart and decided to  

Female Guest:
Throw gasoline on the fire.  

Male Host:
Yeah.  

Female Guest:
And it worked.  They were able to make the big lie even bigger, erode trust, push people further apart.  

Male Host:
It really was the perfect storm.  

Female Guest:
Yeah.  

Male Host:
Trump's lies. Foreign interference. Those extremist groups  and a whole lot of people who were  

Female Guest:
ready to believe the worst.  

Male Host:
Exactly.  

Female Guest:
And that brings us back to those 187 minutes. A perfect illustration of how fragile our democracy really is. During those crucial moments,  when you need a president to be a beacon of truth, a defender.  There was nothing but a dangerous silence.  

Male Host:
That's a lot, you know, to really wrap your head around the manipulation, the abuse of power, the violence. It's hard to believe this is at once  

Female Guest:
Yeah.

Male Host:  
The same country that's supposed to be this beacon of democracy.  

Female Guest:
And that's exactly why it's so important to understand it. What happened? How it happened? What it means going forward.  

Male Host:
And that's where the January 6th report comes in, right? The special counsel, the court cases, it's all  

Female Guest:
Essential. Yeah. Pieces of the puzzle. And they're not just about holding people accountable,  

Male Host:
which is important, but  

Female Guest:
Of course. But it's bigger than that. It's about having a historical record. About learning from this. And about protecting our democracy from [it] happening again.  

Male Host:
So it's about protecting ourselves,  

Female Guest:
Yeah.  

Male Host:
Our institutions.  

Female Guest:
Yes. January 6th, it was a wake-up call. Democracy is not...  Well, it's not a guarantee. It's not something we can just take for granted.  

Male Host:
We have to.  

Female Guest:
We have to participate, be vigilant, defend it. Especially against those who want to undermine it.  

Male Host:
Against those who want to, what, take it away?  

Female Guest:
Essentially, yes.  

Male Host:
It's a reminder that our rights, our freedoms... They're  

Female Guest:
Fragile.  

Male Host:
Yeah.  

Female Guest:
Mm-hmm.  

Male Host:
And that we can't stay silent. Not when we see them being threatened.  

Female Guest:
And we can't let our leaders off the hook, either. No matter their political party, their position. We have to demand more. Transparency, integrity, a commitment to... Well, you know,  

Male Host:
the Constitution. So after all of this, the evidence, the different arguments, what really stands out, what's the most important thing for people to understand about January 6th?  

Female Guest:
You know, for me, it's realizing that this wasn't just a one-day thing. This riot, it didn't just come out of nowhere. It was... Well, it was the result of this long campaign to undermine our elections, create distrust, overturn the will of the people.  

Male Host:
And that campaign... It didn't end on January 6th.  

Female Guest:
No. Not really. The forces behind it are still out there, still trying to, I don't know, chip away at our democracy.  

Male Host:
That's pretty disheartening.  

Female Guest:
It's real though, and it's why we can't just pretend it never happened. We have to learn. We have to be stronger, more vigilant. We have to protect the... you know,  

Male Host:
the ideals this country was founded on.  

Female Guest:
Exactly.  

Male Host:
And that starts with...  

Female Guest:
Staying informed,  talking to each other,  being careful about what we believe, who we trust.  We all have a role to play here.  

Male Host:
We definitely covered a lot today,  but it seems like this story,  the story of January 6th,  it's not over yet.  

Female Guest:
Not by a long shot.  

Male Host:
More investigations,  court cases, unanswered questions.

Female Guest:
And those answers matter.  

Male Host:
They do. One thing's for sure...  January 6th, it changed things. And it's going to continue to shape this country  

Female Guest:
for years to come.  

Male Host:
But what that looks like...  

Female Guest:
Yeah...  

Male Host:
Well, that's up to us.  Democracy. It's not a spectator sport.  

Female Guest:
You have to participate.  

Male Host:
Be engaged. Stand up for what's right.  

Female Guest:
Never forget what happened.  

Male Host:
And never stop fighting to protect our freedoms.  

Female Guest:
Well said.  

Male Host:
This was a heavy one. Thanks for diving into this with me.  

Female Guest:
Any time.  

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Jeff Frick:
All right.  Welcome back.  Well, that is crazy.  You know, as I've said,  we don't have any clue how fast this thing is moving,  and it's only going to move faster.  Find a friend to help you on your AI journey.  Get these tools, play with these tools.  Experiment with these tools.  You know, you can do a lot of other things with the tools.  I was asking it, you know, what are the pillars of the government's case In this trial and it lists all the things.  And what's great is you can also ask for the references.  So it will point back within that 2,500 pages  as to where it pulled, what references.  So pretty amazing things.  The AI journey is only going to get crazier as...  as has been said many, many times, there's...  massive amounts of capital being deployed here.  There's massive, new companies.  Everyone is trying to integrate it both within their existing products as well as create brand new products.  

So it's something you want to try to stay on.  You'll never get ahead of it, I don't think,  but you at least need to try to stay with it so that you're not completely  left in the dust.  As these new tools  and basically infinite computing power  delivered to your mobile phone is coming.  

Pretty crazy times.  I hope you enjoyed the video.  Thanks for checking in. We'll see you next time.  Thanks for watching on YouTube.  Thanks for listening on the podcast.  Take care.  

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