{"podcast":{"title":"Future Around & Find Out","slug":"future-around-find-out-5737933","podcast_index_feed_id":5737933,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/crafted","website_url":"https://www.futurearound.com","image_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/gD8iOGSiDcJm2QgXx2W6kaWRvL95HjrwO4xyp5-KAX4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS82YTcx/YWIxYzkxYjgwNWI4/MTc5NGYyNjliZjU5/NzQ4MC5qcGc.jpg","author":"Modern Product Minds, LLC","episode_count":131,"summary":"* Winner of the 2026 Webby Award for Best Technology Podcast * Future Around & Find Out helps builders think clearly about AI and emerging technologies, grapple with the implications, and decide what to build next. Independent technologist and former NPR journalist Dan Blumberg speaks with founders, makers, and you to celebrate breakthroughs, call BS on the hype, explore how things might go sideways — and how we can steer the future in the right direction. On Tuesdays, we interview the builders changing how we work, live, and play. On FAFO Fridays, futurist Kwaku Aning joins Dan for a playful recap of the week in tech, including the amazing, the scary, and the strange. You’ll also hear about innovations that too often get overshadowed by AI, including in deep tech, biotech, fintech, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain, and more. Across it all, you’ll hear sharp takes on what comes next and what builders need to know now. So let’s Future Around & Find Out together! https://www.FutureAround.com","last_synced_at":"2026-06-14T08:21:54.976983+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933"},"episode":{"title":"\"It's cognitive uploading\" | How Google NotebookLM's Steven Johnson uses AI as a second brain","slug":"it-s-cognitive-uploading-how-google-notebooklm-s-steven-johnson-uses-ai-as-a-second-brain","published_at":"2026-06-02T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933/it-s-cognitive-uploading-how-google-notebooklm-s-steven-johnson-uses-ai-as-a-second-brain","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933","url":"https://share.transistor.fm/s/5f380fb6","audio_url":"https://media.transistor.fm/5f380fb6/47d54ef1.mp3","summary":"Steven Johnson dreamed of building the ultimate research assistant. Now he's doing just that at Google, where he's the co-founder and editorial director of NotebookLM. It's one of the most interesting AI products out there. It radically changes how we learn, research, and remember — and the \"notebook\" itself is becoming a standard unit of knowledge across Google, rolling out in more and more places where AI needs to reference a body of sources. In this episode, the author of _Where Good Ideas Come From_ explains how AI is making him a better researcher and writer — and why tools like NotebookLM are so powerful when you're trying to make new connections, remember what you've already found, and figure out what's missing. There's a lot of fear right now that AI is making us dumber. That by relying on it too much, we're engaging in \"cognitive offloading\" and stunting our learning. That's a real risk, especially in schools. But Steven says we should also be talking about what you can gain from AI — and the power of something he calls \"cognitive uploading.\" Resources: * Google NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/ * Steven Johnson: https://stevenberlinjohnson.com/ Support Future Around & Find Out: * Follow Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/ * Get the free newsletter: https://www.futurearound.com * Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO! https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade (00:00) - If you are interested in truly understanding something, this is the greatest time to be alive (01:25) - Steven's controversial NYT piece and the cold call from Google Labs (02:55) - Who NotebookLM's power users are (04:40) - The notebook as a new format for knowledge (06:20) - Featured notebooks: earnings reports, Shakespeare, and Dungeons & Dragons (11:00)…","meta_description":"Steven Johnson dreamed of building the ultimate research assistant. Now he's doing just that at Google, where he's the co-founder and editorial director o…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2595,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/future-around-find-out-5737933/episodes/it-s-cognitive-uploading-how-google-notebooklm-s-steven-johnson-uses-ai-as-a-second-brain/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-around-find-out-5737933/it-s-cognitive-uploading-how-google-notebooklm-s-steven-johnson-uses-ai-as-a-second-brain.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}