We use it to find bestselling author Steven Berlin Johnson’s next project.

I sat down with bestselling author Steven Johnson to see if we could come up with a concept for his next project—using AI. The results were amazing.

We loaded 200,000 words of NASA transcripts and all of Steven’s reading notes since 1999 into NotebookLM, Google’s personalized research assistant. We wanted to see if it could help us explore the Apollo 1 fire and find relevant and surprising ideas from history that could work to explain it.

- NotebookLM condensed disparate 200,000 words of NASA transcripts into readable formats like FAQs and chronological timelines.
- It sifted through the material to identify the catalyst for the fire.
- The model even went through Steven’s Readwise notes to find a relevant, and unexpected, story from history that we could use to explain the history and origins of the fire

If you’re a fan of Steven Johnson’s work or you’re interested in AI as a creative tool, you need to watch this episode.

All of this happens as a live exploration of NotebookLM, and it’s a seriously wild ride.

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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Teaser
00:00:53 - Introduction
00:04:47 - The roots of Steven’s obsession with organizing ideas
00:08:16 - Steven’s belief in being receptive to organic connections
00:11:16 - NotebookLM’s northstar
00:14:02 - How GoogleLab’s note-taking app respects copyright law
00:16:17 - Using NotebookLM to analyze highlights from books that Steven has read
00:19:02 - Steven’s personal approach to curating valuable information
00:21:51 - Why NotebookLM shows restraint when it is asked to speculate
00:29:13 - Using the model to co-create the beginnings of a documentary
00:52:54 - NotebookLM generates the opening script

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Steven Johnson:   / stevenbjohnson  
NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com/
Steven’s newsletter, Adjacent Possible: https://adjacentpossible.substack.com...
Steven’s latest book about the rise of the modern detective, The Infernal Machine: https://www.amazon.com/Infernal-Machi...
A few of Steven’s other books:
How We Got to Now: https://www.amazon.com/How-We-Got-Now...
Where Good Ideas Come From: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Good-Ide...
The Ghost Map: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Map-Lond...
Emergence: https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Conn...
The Invention of Air: https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Air-...