Podcast creators beware. This week Google released NotebookLM, an experimental tool to help with note-taking, which can create an audio “deep dive conversation” about any document you care to upload. Read: an AI-generated podcast.
The results, frankly, are astounding. There are two hosts whose US-accented voices are almost impeccably believable as humans, and whose banter, digressions and personal interjections – as well as a tendency to pull in separate pieces of research to help explain your document – are almost indistinguishable from the work of humans. Assuming, that is, we’re talking about quite competent humans.
Feeding in a recent Hear Here intro about the longevity of podcasts compared with that of TV had NotebookLM riffing about Off Menu due to its mention in the article (“I’ve literally listened to episodes of Off Menu in public and laughed out loud – like, full-on belly laughed!”). It also introduced some astute observations not included in the piece itself (“It’s interesting, isn’t it? I think that maybe traditional listener fatigue doesn’t apply in the same way, because podcast audiences are largely self-selecting – like, we choose what we listen to. We’re invested from the start”). I was less chuffed with the podcast it churned out in response to taking a look at a report about the damp in my home (“That sounds like something out of a horror movie!”).
It may not be perfect, but it’s scary how impressive the results are. How long until a fully AI-generated show takes off? And how easy would it be to send somebody one of these audio files and convince them it was a legitimate human-created podcast?
The answers, I suspect, wouldn’t enthral production companies. So, in the meantime, let’s focus on a range of excellent new shows created by humans – read on for the finest shows of the week, and five of the best podcasts to understand the US election.
Alexi Duggins
Deputy TV editor
Picks of the week
Rumble: Ali/Foreman and the Soul of ’74
Widely available, episodes weekly
Fifty years ago, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman faced off in a heavyweight championship fight in Zaire. But before the legendary Rumble in the Jungle there was a festival, with a lineup that was a who’s who of great Black musicians: James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers and Miriam Makeba. In this brilliant podcast, journalist Zaron Burnett shows what a feat it was to put on, with a backdrop of political tension and giant egos. Hannah Verdier
Backfired: Attention Deficit
Audible, all episodes out now
ADHD drugs can have huge benefits, but as the people who talk to Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes say, they can sometimes come at a cost. In a world where everyone has an opinion on the subject, it’s refreshing to hear what it’s really like to live with ADHD and what happens when there’s a medicine shortage. HV
Kill List
Widely available, episodes weekly
When tech journalist Carl Miller discovered a list of names on the dark web, he stumbled on a murder-for-hire site. What transpires is a horrific story where he finds out too much about the people on it – and has to convince the authorities to investigate before more names are ticked off. HV
Mag Hags
Widely available, episodes weekly
Problem pages, sex tips and advertorials for lamb: vintage women’s magazines are a rich landscape. Journalists Franki Cookney and Lucy Douglas ask what’s changed as they flick through an issue of Cosmopolitan from October 1982 with all its sex tactics, advice from men and – in what was an enduring staple of the genre – the promise of a flat stomach. HV
Know Your Place
Widely available, episodes weekly
Despite Keir Starmer’s insistence that his dad was a toolmaker, the recent election signalled that voting is no longer a clearcut case of Labour for the working class and Conservative for the middle class. But what actually does class mean in 2024? The Conversation’s Laura Hood investigates – including a look at the Liberal Democrats’ “Gail’s strategy” to capture the middle classes. Hollie Richardson
There’s a podcast for that
This week, Charlie Lindlar chooses five of the best podcasts on the US election, from a retelling of the rise of Kamala Harris to a show from three anti-Trump Republicans
Pod Save America
After the 2016 election of Donald Trump, four former Obama administration staffers – Jons Favreau and Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor – wanted to build a platform that was a safe haven for liberal Americans not yet “ready to give up or go insane”. Seven years on, Pod Save America is perhaps the quintessential US politics podcast, breaking down developments with a balance of relaxed charm, millennial sweariness and insider knowledge, building a devoted fandom in the process. The show is rapidly coming up on 1,000 episodes, still hauls in a reported 1.5m listeners an episode and has spawned the wider Crooked Media podcast network, which includes a new series from Democratic politico Stacey Abrams.
The Next Level
A mirror image of Pod Save America, this show sees former Republican strategists analyse the race for the White House from a centre-right perspective. Guardian readers may fairly wonder what makes the views of Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller and Jonathan V Last worth tuning into: the three are avowed “never Trumpers” who loathe the former president and what he has done to the party they love (indeed, they recently hoped Tim Walz would “destroy” JD Vance at their recent vice-presidential debate). That makes the trio fascinating voices to explain both the state of American conservatism and what threat a second Trump presidency poses to the American project.
Kamala: Next in Line
For a step away from the frantic news agenda, cue up this short MSNBC series, which sees Joy Reid chart Kamala Harris’s political rise from student to senator via the San Francisco district attorney’s office. The nine-episode run debuted late in the 2020 election as a character study of the woman who would become Joe Biden’s vice-president, but still serves as a cipher for understanding Harris’s beliefs and motivations as she seeks the presidency. And from the prosecutor to the prosecuted, one more MSNBC recommendation: Prosecuting Donald Trump, an indispensable guide to the many legal battles the former president finds himself embroiled in.
Trump, Inc
Another trip back to 2020, for this joint production between public radio station WNYC and nonprofit outfit ProPublica. This investigative podcast sought to dig deep into the business dealings of Donald Trump and what they reveal about the president’s motivations – and substantial conflicts of interest. The series is not only brilliantly told but remains an excoriating expose of the Republican candidate in 2024, and one of the most thorough dissections of the cronyism and corrupt behaviour at the heart of Trump’s camp.
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Politics Weekly America
And, of course, for an in-depth look at the presidential race and what’s at stake for not just the US but an anxiously watching world, the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland hosts this weekly look across the Atlantic. Every Friday, Freedland checks in with Guardian correspondents and other esteemed guests on the latest from battleground states, Harris’s chances at the top job, the looming spectre of Project 2025 and more. And for even more, be sure to tune into US Election Extra, a daily 10-minute briefing with Lucy Hough, on the Today in Focus feed from Monday.
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A loving ode to celebrity breakups in The Way They Were.
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Journalist Jane MacSorley and Thomas Ross KC take listeners into a real-life courtroom drama in the BBC’s Inside Murder Trial.