“What if you loaded all of your newsletter content into NotebookLM and asked you to roast it hard?”
That thought popped into my head as I was finishing up the 2024 review issue. I realized I had to try it. The results — dressed up a little bit with Descript — came out so well they needed to be shared.
How To Roast Yourself
If you want to build your own version it is very straightforward. For tools you will need your content, access to a google account and NotebookLM. If you aren’t familiar with NotebookLM our handy guide is a wonderful place to start.
The three easy steps to recreate your own version are:
Create a new notebook and load the content into NotebookLM. I used PDF files, but you can probably just share URLs at least for public content.
Once your notebook content is loaded, just prompt it to roast you. I had real success with a simple prompt of “roast this substack” and it got more interesting when I asked NotebookLM to “roast it harder.”
To create the podcast use the studio panel’s Audio Overview feature. Make sure to click Customize — you need to modify the prompt. The prompt I used to create this audio was also very simple. Just “roast this Substack for seven minutes and don't hold back” and nothing more.
Beyond the roasting this is an amazing feedback tool for all of your content. Something like this was invaluable for pulling together my review issue — I could just ask about the entire stack of content and get good, factual answers.
Enjoy the roast — and let me know what you think in the comments! And if you enjoy content like this please subscribe!
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