Podcasting
To my amazement, I listen to podcasts. I think they’re pretty interesting, here are my notes on them.
My own audio feed: Igor’s Podcast
I now narrate some of my essays as audio episodes via AI voiceover (Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS, Charon voice). First episode: my full take on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — about two and a quarter hours, solo narration, with embedded chapter markers.
Subscribe: paste this into Overcast / Apple Podcasts / Pocket Casts:
https://idvorkin-ai-tools.github.io/podcast/feed.xml
Or one-tap: podcast://idvorkin-ai-tools.github.io/podcast/feed.xml.
The voiceover is AI; the words are mine. Feed + audio + cover art all live in the idvorkin-ai-tools/podcast repo; the toolchain is the gen-tts skill in chop-conventions.
Pick your narrator
Gemini Flash TTS ships 30 prebuilt voices. The current default is Charon (deep storyteller baritone) — but if you want to hear how the other voices land before subscribing, the catalog below is the same one I use to pick. Tap any name to hear that voice read a short sample.
Standalone page: larry-voice-samples · Soprano-iteration hill-climb: soprano-iteration.html (using a Gemini Pro model-as-judge to make Charon sound like Tony Soprano — see /hill-climbing for the write-up).
Theory/Random Thoughts
Why is engagement/retention better with podcasts
What is good about podcasts.
- Probably not podcasts, but interviews.
- I suspect it engages some empathy as if you want to eavesdrop on a conversation.
- You also build rapport with the hosts - who has a personality you bond with.
How did I end up listening to podcasts
Why we podcast From Kris Jenkins:
- hjblog.jenkster.com/2023/04/why-we-podcast.html
- Thinking post on it
Links to Digest
Podcasts I listen to.
Tech
Tech Podcasts I listen to.
- Kris Jenkins
- Sharp Tech
AI Generated Podcasts - Google’s NotebookLLM
Google made NotebookLM as a sleeper hit. Basically auto create podcasts as a part of a random project - and everyone loves it!
- Get tech depth from Simon: https://simonwillison.net/tags/notebooklm/
- There is magic in how the hosts do the non-human banter. I lost the word for what this is.
w00t - you can call the model yourself now
Podcast as GPT Output
That’s what I think is ultimately so compelling about the 2-person podcast format as a UIUX exploration. It lifts two major “barriers to enjoyment” of LLMs. 1 Chat is hard. You don’t know what to say or ask. In the 2-person podcast format, the question asking is also delegated to an AI so you get a lot more chill experience instead of being a synchronous constraint in the generating process. 2 Reading is hard and it’s much easier to just lean back and listen.
My own podcast generator
2 parts:
- Generate the podcast script from source material - I seem to have lost where I did this.
- Convert to audio using ElevenLabs