This Google Tool Turned My Blog Into a Podcast—Here’s What Happened

 It’s been a busy week for me with a conference I attended in Pittsburg, KS. I worked on Monday, then drove to Pittsburg on Tuesday. I was there from Tuesday through Thursday with a packed schedule full of meetings and presentations. Everything went really well! By Wednesday night, I was so tired after a full day of meetings that I just lounged in my hotel room watching shows—and I was asleep by 10:30.

While I was away, Carrie sent me a few pictures of Oliver enjoying the backyard. The image to the right shows him soaking up the sun while lounging in the yard. She also sent a picture of him chasing a rabbit—oh, the joys of being a dog!

This was my second conference in just a few short months. At both events, I heard about a site called NoteBookLM from Google. I first came across it at eLive back in April but hadn’t had much time to explore it. After hearing about it again at this conference, I decided to give it a try.

If you haven’t checked out NoteBookLM, I highly recommend it. You can upload a technical manual, notes, or other information, and the site can turn it into a podcast, a FAQ, or even allow you to chat live with an AI about the content. I tested it using my own website (https://blogger.haverty.net/) to see what it would do with my blog content. It turned my site into a podcast summarizing the past few months of posts. You can listen to the podcast generated by NoteBookLM below.

 

It did a great job scanning my site and summarizing what I post about each week. The audio file above was generated by NoteBookLM as if two (fictional) hosts were doing a podcast about my blog. I thought it was really cool and wanted to share it—not just because it was fun, but because it’s amazing how NoteBookLM uses AI to turn content into something so accessible and engaging.

Until next time, have a great week!

Weekend Trip to St. Louis for Food, Drinks, and Fun

 

This past weekend we took a trip to St. Louis which is turning into an annual trip. Greg plays in a fantasy baseball draft that drafts in-person, so we have made a trip of it the past two years. We headed to St. Louis on Thursday, March 16 and we returned on Sunday, March 19. We had a wonderful time and managed to get to two Italian places to eat.

 

We did go to a new Italian place to eat our first night in St. Louis. We went to Paul Manno's Restaurant. Great food, wonderful service, and had the best time eating there Thursday night. Our night here as a perfect evening where we continued to talk about it on our way back on Sunday. Wonderful spot!

Friday we had a long day of going to different spots around St. Louis. We started off with an early breakfast and then went through the day until we dropped Greg off at his draft. Erin, Carrie, and I found a good spot to eat as we knew it might not be a spot Greg would like, so we made reservations and had a delicious meal in a cool spot. The name of the place was jalea.

The drinks were good and then dinner was also delicious. I could not finish all of my food, so I took some of it home, but ended up not having the leftovers either. We loved the look of the place and our waiter was excellent. He shared with us that he played baseball in Kansas, so he was familiar with Kansas. It was good to eat some delicious food, have some fun drinks, and try out a new spot.

Carrie was doing some artsy pictures while we were in St. Louis, so a few of those to share here.

We are already looking forward to next year when we will go back and go to new places. I was able to meet with my friend, Mark, and his wife, Shauna, while were there. We met them for lunch on Saturday and had a chance to catch up.

Saturday night, we went to Charlie Gitto’s which we went to last year. It was good, but we had a better time, better food, and drinks at Paul Manno's. We look forward to trying a new spot next year when we return.

For now, this is all as I did not get this posted on Sunday as my regular schedule as I was so tired from the weekend, I slept most of the evening and went to bed early. Playing catch up on our weekend trip of staying up late, getting up early, and having fun.