Building a Second Brain with NotebookLM: From Blank Page to Full Research Report

Hey everyone, it's Jamie here at Teachers  Tech and welcome to what might be the most   important video I make this year.   We're diving deep, and I mean deep,   into the absolute powerhouse that  is Google Notebook LM in 2026. If you've been following the channel, you know  we covered this tool back when it was just   Project Tailwind. Back then, it was a neat little  note-taking experiment. But fast forward to today,   2026, and this whole thing has evolved into a  full-blown cognitive engine. It's just not for   notes anymore. With the integration of Gemini 3  flash model, we're talking about a tool that can   ingest massive amounts of data, videos,  audio, PDFs, slides, and help you think,   create, and research faster than you ever thought  possible. Today, I'm not just giving you a tour.    We're going to build a real project together.   We're going to simulate a full research deep dive   into NASA's Aremis 2 mission, which is literally  launching right now in early 2026. We'll use   real NASA technical reports and press conference  transcripts and real YouTube updates to show you   how to master this tool. By the end of this class,  you'll master the focus and peel prompting method.    You'll be talking to your notes in new interactive  audio mode, and you'll be generating data tables   and infographics that would take a human analyst  hours to build. All right, we're in. First,

let's talk about the source limits because that  changed in 2026. In the free version, you're   capped at 50 sources per notebook. If you upgrade  to the Notebook LM Plus, that's part of the Google   1 AI premium plan, it jumps to 300 sources  with a massive 500,000 words per source. Now,   for our Artemis 2 project, we need to get data  in. In 2026, there are two ways to do this. The   classic upload and the deep research search. We're  going to be using both. Now, look at the bottom of   ad sources area. Right through here we have four  distinct buttons. We have upload files, websites,   which is YouTube's and websites together.   We have drive and we have copy text. Now,   we're going to be starting with uploading files.   And I have a number of different PDFs that I've   already downloaded here. I'm going to go ahead and  click on upload. And you can see the three PDFs.    I'm going to select all three and click open.   Watch how fast that just processed it. It just   didn't upload it. it read it. Now, we're not done  with adding our sources that we've already uh went   through and got ourselves. If we want to add more,  just go back up and add sources. This time, I have   a website that I want to add, and it's right here.   So, we just need to go ahead and go and copy the   URL. Go back to our Notebook LM. Under website,  we're going to go and paste this link in. So when   I go and insert this Notebook LM scrapes the text  from that page instantly, stripping out the ads   and menus. Now this is my favorite part right  here. So I'm going to go to ad sources. This   time I'm going to grab this YouTube video again.   Just copy paste it back over here. And this will   automatically extract this transcript. Now I can  chat with the video. Okay, we have our base files.

But what if I'm missing something? Now look over  here at this big search bar in the center that   says search the web for new sources. This is the  deep research integration. Now I realize I don't   have any specific radiation safety protocols. So  instead of opening a new tab and googling it, I'll   type right in here Artemis to radiation safety  protocols. Before I go and hit search, I do want   to point out you can see from the deep research  the fast research if you're familiar with Gemini.    And the other thing is I'm searching the web, but  you can actually search your Google Drive if you   did have uh different files in there that would  help with answering these. I'm going to go ahead   and send this. Now, you can see it found seven  more sources. I'm just going to click on this,   and you can see them all. Right now, the these are  all checked. I'm going to uncheck them because I   might want to add them all. I can go through and  select the ones I want. So, maybe this YouTube   video right here or this other website. And we do  have a PDF here. So, I'm going to add one more.    And then I'm going to import these ones into  my notebook. So, this is a hybrid workflow. You   upload what you have, but you search for what you  miss. Now that we have our data, most people make

a mistake. They just type summarize this. Don't  do that. That's boring and it gives you a generic   answer. We're going to use a technique I call the  focus and peel method. It's a simple concept. You   narrow the scope immediately. peel back the layers  to iterate on the details. So, let's try this.    Instead of summarize Artemis 2, we're going to use  this gap hunter prompt. This is an advanced prompt   structure that I found in the research and it's  perfect for finding what's missing in a plan. So,   here's the prompt we're going to use. You're  an expert aerospace analyst. From the selected   sources, identify at least three categories of  strategic risk in the Artemis timeline. For each,   write one sentence description, an example  from the text that highlights the risk,   and a suggested follow-up question. Present this  as a markdown table. Now, see what we did there?    We have the persona, the expert aerospace analyst.   This tells the AI to use technical language,   not fifth grade English. The constraint is three  categories, and the format is the markdown table.    Before I go and hit send on this, I just want to  point out if you're new to Notebook LM, I have all   the sources checked off right now. So, it's going  to look through all of these based on this prompt.    You can uncheck these to have one or as many of  them as you want to apply the prompt to. So, you   can see it says eight sources right here. That's  what it's based on. So, let's send this off. Now,   look what it did. It just didn't summarize. It  found the specific ones put into a table like   this one. space weather exposure. The timing of  the Aremis 2 mission coincides with period of   peak solar activity. Now, what I want to point out  again, if you're new to Notebook LM, everything is   grounded in your sighting. So, if this is cited  here, this is pulling it from this. This isn't   searching somewhere on the internet. This is going  to really avoid the hallucinations of it. But,   it's always good to double check things. And this  makes it easy to double check because you can see   exactly where this information is coming from.   So, as I scroll down, you can see you have a few   different options where you could copy paste this  information out. What I like to do is if you get   something that you really want to hang on to, save  it as a note. When you click save it as a note,   it will place it over here so you have easy access  to that table. And if you click on this here, you   can see you can actually convert it to a source  that will put it over here. Or you can export   to sheets because it's in a table format or docs.   So, you have lots of options what to do with this   information you just dug up. You can continue on  with questions down here, but I want to show you   a different way you could ask a question to help  you with learning different items. And this way   is called the Socratic Tutor. So, this is great if  you're a student trying to learn the material. So,   we just don't want it to summarize again. We're  going to place this one in. Quiz me on the   Artemis 2 flight profile. Ask me one question  at a time. Wait for my answer. If I'm wrong,   give me a hint based on the source text and  we'll send this off. Okay, so here's question   one. According to the Artemis 2 mission overview,  the Orion spacecraft will perform a trans lunar   injection TLI burn to travel to the moon. What  specific type of trajectory will the crew utilize   to ensure that after flying around the far side  of the moon, Earth's gravity naturally pulls   the spacecraft back home without  requiring a propulsive engine burn? Okay,   I must admit I have no idea. I did have to look  this up and for a wrong answer and I'm going to   give this a wrong answer. So it's the near rectal  linear halo orbit. So I want to see how it helps   me. Okay, so here's the result back. So it said  it's a very good guess, but it's incorrect for   the Artemis 2 flight profile. So it goes through  and starts to explain why it's the wrong answer.    And everything is going to be connected back to  the sources again. So that's an important part.    It's not going to be going out searching other  places. And then we're on to question two. So   this is a great way to learn from the material  that you give it. So if you're preparing for   an exam or deeper learning now, this is the  feature that broke the internet last year,

the audio overview. People call it the AI podcast,  but in 2026, it's even better. So it's no longer   just a passive listening. It's interactive. So,  if I take a look at audio overview right here,   and we'll generate one for our Artemis project,  but I just want to click on it. I want to go to   customize first. So, when we click on this, we're  going to get some options. And I really like this   upgrade that they did with this cuz at first when  Notebook LM came out, you couldn't really specify   too much, but you can see you can do a deep  dive brief critique. I really like this one   with the debate option here. So, we do can pick  our length. I'm going to pick short here. And we   have a language output. So I want to point out  here, this is an important thing to add. So in   this case right here, I'm going to say focus  heavily on the crew selection. Read Wiseman,   Victor, and Victor. Discuss the backgrounds. Keep  the tone excited but professional. I'm going to go   ahead and generate this now. Okay, it's all done.   We'll take a listen in a second. I just want to   point out, see how this is still based on eight  sources. It's because I had all of these checked.    You can uncheck or check as many as you want.   Now, if I click on that, a huge step forward.    It opens up and starts playing. A second. It's  really the critical one. We have our sources   lined up. Yeah. And they all point to just how  high stakes this mission is. Absolutely. We're   going to focus on the crew, especially Commander  Reed Wisman and pilot Victor Glover. And okay, so   it did exactly what I asked it to do. It focused  on the crew in the specific names that I told it.    The other thing I want to point out, notice that  it's only 4 minutes and 25 seconds. That's because   I told it to make a short one. I do want to point  out right here, you can download, you can even uh   change the playback speed if you want it listening  uh to it a little quicker. But I find the powerful   thing is the interactive mode. You can actually  join the conversations and ask questions. So,   I'm going to go into interactive mode. Then I do  need to hit play audio. And I'll hit play audio.    Then I'm going to just jump ahead a little bit to  after uh the tell about welcome to the deep dive.    Today we are looking at absolutely we're going to  focus on the crew especially commander Reed Wisman   and pilot Victor Glover and what they're facing  on a Oh, our listeners got something shar. Hey,   I noticed you mentioned Victor Glover.   What is his specific role on the mission? That is a great question. We're happy you asked  about Victor Glover. He is the pilot for Artemis   second. His role is crucial, especially since  this is a test mission. Our sources highlight how   hands-on the crew must be. So, did you see that?   It stopped answer my specific question using the   source data we uploaded and then went back to the  show. So, imagine you're continuing to work. You   have a 50page research paper uploaded. You're  just not listening to a summary. You're having   a conversation with it. So, you can say, "Well,  wait, explain that formula again. " And remember,   you can put Notebook LM as an app on your mobile  device as well. The audio overview is amazing,   especially interactive mode. I really like  this option of video overview. So, I'm going   to go through and just customize something real  quickly again, but you can see what we're after   here. We can create an explainer or brief, choose  your language, and we can even choose our visual   style. So, I'm going to go with uh this one right  here. And now things to try. I want to say create   a visual explainer of the hybrid free return  trajectory. Visually demonstrate how the two orbit   checkout works around Earth and clearly highlight  the point of no return at the TLI burn. Let's go   ahead and generate this video. All right, we have  it ready. This took a few minutes longer than the   other ones. I'm going to go ahead and hit play.   So it should pop up and we can hit play again.    So, humans are finally going back to the moon  after 50 years. Getting there is only half   the battle. The real question is, how do you  make absolutely sure they get home safe? Well,   it turns out the flight plan has this incredibly  clever built-in safety net. And the Orion capsule   could actually handle the trip. But, you know,  after all that fire and fun, so you can see it's   covering the uh parameters that I gave it that  it created this. If I jump around, it'll just   give you an idea. I mean, you have to be sure.   Every single system has to give the different   graphics that were created for this about giving  them the final go. If you want to download this,   just click here. This is going to download it  as an MP4. So, this is a great way to create   these explainer videos or just these deep dives  into the topics again based on all the sources   that you've curated and then you can create  these videos from. Okay, fun time is over.

The podcast is great for concepts, but when you  need hard data, you need the data tables features.    This was a late 2025 edition and it changed  the game for analyst. In our Artemis sources,   we have data scattered everywhere. The launch  date is in press release. The mission duration   is in the PDF. The budget is in the congressional  report. I don't want to read three documents to   make a spreadsheet. I want notebook LM to do  it. So over here we have our data table. I'm   going to make sure that I go to customize to  tell it what I want. So describe the data table   you want to create. This is what I'm going to say.   Create a table data table listing the key mission   parameters for Artemis 2. Columns should include  parameter name, value, source, document, and date   of information. I'm going to click generate.   Let's go ahead and open this up. Look at this   right here. So, we have everything that we wanted  in this nice table structure. This only took about   a minute to do. the amount of time that just  saved to go through all of this research to pull   out this into something that I can move to Google  Docs and everything is going to be cited where the   information is coming from. Now, to go to Google  Docs, all I have to do is export to Sheets right   here. This will open up Google Sheets and then I  can go ahead and format this the way I'd want. So,   maybe you take this information and you create any  charts or graphs from it. But let's try something   a little harder now. I'm just going to close  this table and I'm going to go back to data   table. If you just click on it generally, it will  create kind of a general table without any of the   specifications what we're telling it. So I'm  going to make sure I click on this. And this   time I'm going to say create a comparison table of  the Artemis one versus the Artemis 2. Compare crew   duration, objectives, and distances traveled. So  let's generate. Okay, so about 30 seconds later,   I have this. Let's open this up. And this is  perfect for identifying changes. It clearly   shows the Aremis 1 was uncrrewed and went 40,000  mi past the moon, while the Artemis 2 is crude and   does a lunar flyby. If you're a student comparing  historical events or business analysts comparing   competitor prices, this feature alone is worth  the price of admission. We've ingested data. We've   listened to it. We've structured it. Now, we need  to create with it. And this is where studio mode

really flexes its muscles. This used to be just  a place to save notes, but now it's a creation   site. So you can see the option to create a study  guide under reports. So there's a few different   options you have here from briefing docked, blog  post, but we have study guides. So short answer,   quiz suggesting, easy questions, and glossery of  key terms. So let's say I'm a teacher and I need   to teach a class on the Artemis tomorrow. I don't  have time to write a lesson plan. I click create   a study plan. So instantly Notebook LM grabs my  pinned citations and the key themes it generates   this right here. I'm going to go ahead and open it  up. So what it creates for me and I'll just scroll   through it quickly. You can see I have a short  answer quiz answer key. I have the uh essay   questions. I have a glossery of terms all created  for me with just that simple click and pulling   from the information that I pulled together. But  let's go bigger. I need to pitch this documentary   to a producer. I need slides. I'm going to just  type this into the studio chat under slide deck   right here. I'm going to describe what I want.   And you can see I have a detail deck to presenter   slides here. I'm just going to leave everything  here as default, but I'm going to say create a 10   slide pitch deck outline for a documentary about  the Artemis 2. Include visual suggestions for each   slide. So, hit generate. Now, let's take a look  at this. I'm going to go ahead and open this up   and I'm just going to go hit play on this as well.   Let's start the slideshow. So, I could be using   Notebook LM as my slideshow and I can just arrow  through and we'll just do it quickly. You can   see kind of how they put things together in the  format here. That's a great way for another way   if you're a visual learner that likes to take all  these different notes and add some images to it.    This is a great way to learn as well. I'm going  to hit escape and you can see you can download   it. This will be as a PDF and you do have some  share options as well. Okay, let's use another   teacher example and I need to explain the complex  orbit of uh Artemis 2. So text is boring. the mind   map option here. I'm just going to go ahead and  click on this and this one is done quickly. I'm   going to open this up and instantly it visualizes  the relationships here. So, if I was taking a look   at flight time, you can see how everything's  broken down to the scientific objectives. If   I have the arrows, this means I can continue down  into a further breakdown. If I go to the end here,   so if I click on this solar system formation, it's  going to bring me to the chat where I can get more   information and have a conversation at that point.   What if I need a handout or maybe a graphic for   social media? Take a look at infographic. I'm  going to go to the customize here and you can   go through pick what you want from landscape,  portrait or square depending what you're using   for it. I'm going to keep mine in landscape level  detail. I'll keep it standard. And this is what   I'm going to ask it. Generate an infographic  focusing on the mission design constraints risk.    Highlight the Victor Glover quote about point of  no return and the central visual element. List the   orbital logistics and solar max as secondary risk  factors. Let's go ahead and generate this. Okay,   here we go. I'm always excited to see what it  creates, but this is the one area sometimes I do   find little glitches in the typo with typos. It's  getting so much better than it used to be. But   let's open this up. All right. Right away, just  a glance, I kind of like the look of everything,   what they've done, uh, with just the graphics.   And if I look around, it looks not bad here. Oh,   right through here. I can see something's up with  that. So maybe I'd have to go back and point this   out, but I did get the quote out there, but  just the way I'd have to double check on on   how it's pulling this image out of it because that  doesn't look quite right to have that uh character   there in front of the trans lunar one without  something closing it. So it's pulling something   out incorrectly there. But this is something  that um a year ago you could even get close to   creating something like this. So, do have some fun  with creating these infographics and you can use   them for so many different things. Now, I want  to show you flashcards and quiz and I actually   went ahead and just created them for you. So, if  I go ahead and click on flash cards, you get an   idea what they look like so I can have 66 cards  down here we can download. But if I go through,   you can see what are the two primary simultaneous  goals of NASA's Artemis moon plan and then I can   click to see the answers. So gives a way you  know for studying we can go deeper with explain   as well. So it's a nice graphical representation  to just help you learn more about the topic. The   other thing is we have our quiz. So if I go ahead  and click on quiz earlier on in the video I showed   you how to get things quizzed one at a time.   Uh this will create the quiz for you kind of a   multiple choice and you can just go through and  we do even have a hint option there as well. So   just a couple other tools we have in Notebook LM  that you can quickly take the from the information   that you gave it to create these study tools. So  there you have it. Notebook LM in 2026 is a beast.

We went from finding sources with deep research to  generating video overviews and infographics in one   click. Here's my challenge to you. I want you to  pick one topic you've been meaning to learn. Maybe   it's gardening. Maybe it's crypto. Maybe it's the  history of Rome. Use the search the web feature   to find five sources. throw them into Notebook LM,  generate a video overview or an infographic. Then   let me know in the comments, did it hallucinate  or did it blow your mind? I've put the link to the   NASA sources we've used today in the description,  so if you want to replicate this project. Thanks   for watching this time on Teachers Tech. I'll see  you next week with more tech tips and tutorials.