I've been using NotebookLM's Audio Overview wrong — this is what it's actually good for

I've been using NotebookLM's Audio Overview wrong — this is what it's actually good for Shaun Cichacki/MUO By  Mahnoor Faisal Published May 31, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT Mahnoor Faisal is a tech journalist covering AI and productivity tools with bylines at XDA , SlashGear , MakeUseOf, Laptop Mag , and Android Police . She's been writing professionally since she was sixteen, and has since penned hundreds of articles. This includes in-depth coverage of AI tools like NotebookLM to breaking news across the AI space. Her passion for technology started when she received her first iPod Touch (4th generation) on her 8th birthday, and she's been deep in the tech world ever since. Currently pursuing a degree in computer science, Mahnoor brings both a journalist's eye and a technical foundation to her coverage of how AI is reshaping the way we work and learn. Sign in to your MakeUseOf account Add Us On Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap If you haven't used NotebookLM much yourself but have heard of it in passing, chances are the feature you heard about was Audio Overviews. The two-AI-hosts-turn-your-PDF-into-a-podcast thing. Depending on if you've always been a podcast person, it likely went one of two ways: you got obsessed and began turning everything into an Audio Overview, or tried it once, thought "that's cool I guess," and never really opened it again. Well, chances are you were simply not using it to its full potential. Or at the very least, not for what it's genuinely good at. You have a lot more control over Audio Overviews than you think Audio Overviews are only as good as you make them By now, I'm sure you've had enough people lecture you on how the quality of the prompt you send a LLM determines the quality of the output you get. The same thing applies here, and a