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Wonder Tools

Jeremy Caplan
Wonder Tools
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72 episodes

  • Wonder Tools

    📚 Find Fantastic Books

    2026/02/27 | 7 mins.
    Escape AI slop by reading more books. 📚 That’s my plan for making the most of leisure time this year. One book a week. Some short. Others mostly visual — I love graphic novels. Plus a new AI & tech book group I’m starting.
    Books get my eyes off screens, and my brain welcomes that break from news, vitriol, and ads. Read on for my updated guide to finding great read this year.
    📖 Find your next read
    * Most Recommended Books Pick the name of an expert to see what books they recommend and why.
    * Goodbooks.io and Read This Twice Explore interesting expert picks.
    * En.app Describe the kind of book you’re looking for and get suggestions.
    * Whichbook’s World Map 🗺️ Find books set anywhere in the world. Select a country to see a collection of books that take place there. See how it works👇
    * Where to find book recs is a nice evergreen list from Writing About Reading. I also like the eclectic recs in the NYTimes’s Read Like the Wind newsletter and its intriguing list: Top 100 books of the 21st century.
    * The most mentioned books in podcasts is a neat list from Snipd. In Snipd’s podcast app you can see which books any podcast has mentioned most.
    * BookClubs lets you find a book group near you or organize your own.
    * Fable hosts book clubs & communities for nearly any genre.
    Find free and cheap books 🔦
    * Project Gutenberg offers more than 75,000 free ebooks and audiobooks. No registration required. The Top 100 list is a nice source for free reading.
    * The Internet Archive has searchable e-books and a free library collection.
    * Bookbub spotlights discounted ebooks on its site and email newsletter.
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    SaneBox ensures only important emails land in your inbox, and files other emails into folders. It even lets you hit Snooze, and reminds you to follow up on emails you sent a few days ago.
    📚 Announcing the NEW Wonder Tools Book Group 🌟
    I’m excited to launch a new Wonder Tools book group 📚 exploring the most fascinating recent AI and tech books. Each month we’ll have a live online session with a lively discussion, and you’ll also get a book guide with quotes, highlights and insights. Occasional surprise guests will join. 💫
    This new series, starting in March, is sponsored by Shortform, which publishes high-quality, in-depth guides to non-fiction books. All paid subscribers are invited! Join now for this, and free AI tool access, live monthly online workshops introducing new tools, + other inner circle benefits.
    Libby has free ebooks and audiobooks from libraries in 78 countries. It works for 90% of U.S. libraries. Check out nearly anything instantly, for free, on any device. You can read your free ebooks in the app or on a Kindle.
    * Audio or text Check out and listen to free audiobooks or ebooks.
    * Multiple cards Libby lets you add cards for multiple libraries. That’s useful if a book you want has a waiting list. You can check which library has the shortest waiting list. See where you can get non-resident library cards.
    Limitation: Libby is digital-only — you can’t use it for physical books. That requires a separate app or site, like the NYPL app in New York.
    Kanopy provides free access to top-notch feature films and documentaries. I log in with my library card. Watch on the web, iOS or Android, or on a smart TV app like Google TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire TV. Libraries cap the number of videos you can watch monthly.
    Hoopla is a free app for accessing 3 million audiobooks, ebooks, comics, magazines, and music from 11,500 libraries in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Read, watch or listen in 120 languages from the web or on a mobile device. Bingepasses let you access movies, TV shows, & video courses.
    World Cat tells you which library near you has a book you want. It works in multiple languages and covers 10,000 global libraries. Search for books in print, ebook, braille, or audio.
    📕 Support Independent booksellers
    * Find the cheapest places online to buy any book: Bookfinder
    * Find a nearby independent bookstore: Indiebound
    * Get cheap used books: Abebooks. Check its bargain books + collections.
    * Support your local bookstore with an online purchase. Bookshop.org has raised more than $40 million for indie bookstores.
    * Buy audiobooks from local bookstores: Libro.fm
    * Shop at an online co-op bookshop owned by readers: Tertulia
    Bonus Tip: Prompt AI for personalized reading recommendations 📚
    Create your own taste atlas. Make a list of books you’ve liked or learned from. Add movies and music you love too, or other interests. Share the list with Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT. Ask for recommendations based on your tastes.
    🧒 Find great children’s books
    * Sora, the library app, not the AI video tool, is a digital library for kids. Schools make ebooks and audiobooks available on the app. It works well with graphic novels, picture books, as well as comic books and textbooks. (My family also uses Libby to check out kids books).
    * Epic is another popular kids ebook app. It’s fun to use, but it leans into gamification and extrinsic motivation. It entices kids with points and streaks to keep them opening the app.
    * Kanopy has a great kids section with video versions of books by Eric Carle, Mo Willems and other greats. It also has math and science lessons.
    * How to Raise a Reader is a wonderful guide to children’s books.
    * Common Sense Media has helpful info for parents about sensitive content in children’s books to help with finding age-appropriate books and movies.
    Bonus tools: Check out a well-curated list of 55 apps for book lovers from Bookscouter, where you can buy and sell books.
    📚 Your Comment? What’s an underrated way to find great books?


    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe
  • Wonder Tools

    Make Gatherings More Engaging ✨

    2026/02/13 | 10 mins.
    The hardest part of teaching — or leading meetings — is sparking engagement. Getting people to engage enthusiastically with something new can be tough. It’s especially challenging if people are overwhelmed, super busy, or just tired.
    As we aim to stretch people’s thinking in a new direction, tools are just one part of the overall picture. But they can help. Last week I shared five tools for creating learning paths, interactive lessons, and new kinds of digital notebooks. Today’s follow-up recommendations focus on creative engagement.
    You don’t have to be a teacher to find these resources for opening up participation useful. If you lead a team, run meetings, or collaborate with colleagues, you can benefit from these tools.
    I’ve baked into this post multiple ways to engage.
    * Chime in on the teaching tool chat thread
    * Share your idea on the shared Padlet about teaching tactics
    * Test out your trivia skills on my new open Kahoot quiz game
    * Add a comment to the shared Craft doc about lesson planning
    Padlet — Inspire Creative Collaboration
    Padlets are digital bulletin boards where people can post comments, links, voice recordings, or short videos.
    How it works: Set up a board with a topic or a template. Start with a blank grid, map, timeline, discussion thread, or an image gallery. Participants can use their own devices to add notes, documents, images or comments. Or they can use Padlet’s built-in recorder to add audio or video.
    How you can use it: Build a board to accompany a live, collaborative lesson, event, or meeting. Or have people contribute to it asynchronously. You can also use it as a showcase for exceptional work, or as a space for peer collaboration.
    How I use it: I find Padlet useful for group brainstorming, icebreakers, and for online learning activities. For remote classes, I’ve used Padlet to collect questions before class and for team-building collections, gathering people’s favorite songs, books, and snacks, to help us get to know one another. I’ve also used Padlet as a more visual, welcoming, version of an online discussion board.
    Who it works for: It’s easy to use, so most people jump in without any training. Padlet works at all levels. I’ve used it with graduate students and for mid-career training., as well as with colleagues. It’s popular in elementary and high schools too. It’s one of the best tools for getting people to build on each other’s ideas, rather than passively consuming content.
    Example — try it! Jump into my board on Engagement tactics for impactful teaching. Explore the ideas others have added and contribute one of your own!
    Pricing: It’s free to create up to three boards, or $120/year for unlimited use.
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    Kahoot — Add Fun to Learning
    No other teaching tool generates as many smiles and laughs as Kahoot. It turns quizzes into playful learning games.
    Why it’s so useful: What makes Kahoot especially engaging is the variety of question formats: In addition to standard multiple-choice and true-false queries, you can have students drop pins on images, fill in blanks, guess numbers, or order items in a list.
    How to get started: Design your own quizzes or pick from a massive library of questions by teachers and organizations around the world, like National Geographic and NASA. People can play individually or in teams, live or asynchronously. You can share a link or show the game on screen. People play on their own phone or laptop by answering questions and earning points..
    How I use Kahoot: Sometimes I start class with icebreaker questions, or conclude a session with a review game. Occasionally, if I sense students losing energy or focus, I’ll turn class-related questions into a playful Kahoot competition for a change of pace.
    Example — try it! Play a new Kahoot I created about journalism AI. Email me afterwards with a screenshot of your completed game for a digital prize.
    New tip: Kahoot has a new AI assistant built in, so you can quickly convert text from any document or handout into editable quiz questions.
    Pricing ranges from $3/month (50 players at a time) to $19/month (200 players). Kahoot’s pricing has gotten more complicated: some quizzes & special features now require premium plans.
    Alternatives: Gimkit, Wayground and Blooket are good alternative game-style quiz platforms that offer fuller free plans for those on a tight budget. Genially also works well for classroom games, or try the free JeopardyLabs. (Browse and try out existing Jeopardy boards like AI in Schools).
    Craft — Organize your Materials
    Craft is a surprisingly useful, underrated tool for creating and organizing notes and documents. Use it to develop attractive lesson plans, student handouts, syllabi, or collections of resources.
    How to use it: Organize materials into neat visual cards students or colleagues can click to explore. Add text, images, links, or tables to your documents. They’ll be more visually appealing than Microsoft Word or Google docs, or Apple Notes.
    Sharing Craft docs: It’s easy to share Craft docs publicly or privately with a link, or export them as PDFs or Word docs. You can even transfer content directly to Ulysses, Bear, iA Writer, Day One, or other tools. I find it easier to use than Notion, Coda, or other pro tools I like, and I prefer the look of the shared docs.
    Example — see how it looks: Here’s a Lesson Planning Resource I made with Craft to illustrate how you can use it for handouts and guides. It has subpages that hold PDFs, notes, docs, lists, and various other content.
    Other features: Craft has a remarkably good mobile app for designing and viewing full docs. And while docs are private by default, you can now enable collaborative or even public editing, so people can work together on a project.
    Pricing: Craft is free with a content limit, or $6/month for unlimited use. (I include Craft as part of a bundle of pro tools paid Wonder Tools subscribers get access to for free).
    Bottom line: Consider Craft as a new, flexible place to make, organize, and share docs, especially if you’re drowning in scattered teaching materials.


    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe
  • Wonder Tools

    Top Teaching Tools for 2026 🏆

    2026/02/06 | 18 mins.
    I tested more than 200 educational sites, apps and services last year. Some were so confusing that I quickly gave up. Others were too costly. A few went out of business. Many were narrowly useful, e.g. for 3D modeling, math, or music.
    The top tier tools have consistently been super valuable for me — in my teaching, in my job at the City University of New York, and as a dad of two daughters. To save you the time and effort of sifting through the chaff, I’m sharing the ones I find most useful. Even if you’re not a teacher, these tools may help you gather, organize, share, and present material creatively.
    The huge number of teaching tools clamoring for attention can be exhausting. School districts access 2,739 edtech tools a year, according to Instructure research and The 74, a nonprofit news organization that covers America’s education system, where I wrote recently about today’s tools.
    Below you’ll find my first batch of recommendations, whether you teach once in a while or every day, children or adults. The services are all free to try, with paid upgrades available. I don’t work for any of these companies, I’m just a prof and writer who appreciates and shares helpful teaching tools. My list — starting with part one today — is designed to support teaching and learning at any level. I’d love to hear about the tools you find most useful for teaching & learning — add a comment to share here, or join the new chat thread about top teaching tools.
    Pathwright — Design a learning path
    Pathwright is one of the best-kept secrets among teaching tools. Launched by a nimble South Carolina startup, it’s a simpler, sleeker alternative to complicated learning management systems like Blackboard or D2L. It’s more elegant and flexible than Google Classroom.
    Rather than giving students dozens of menus to choose from, Pathwright lets you create a simple learning path to follow one step at a time. You can create a path with a few steps for guided independent learning, or set up a full online course that’s easy to navigate. I like making mini courses that students or readers can complete in an hour to quickly learn something new.
    Any learning step you create can include a reading, video, activity, assessment, embed, or any other interaction. Learning paths offer a visually delightful alternative to clunkier systems. They work well for professional development, and I’ve found Pathwright works well for remote journalism training.
    Figjam — Spark visual thinking with collaborative whiteboards
    When Google shut down Jamboard and Microsoft discontinued Flipgrid, teachers went searching for lively alternative tools. Figjam came to the rescue. Digital whiteboards enable the kind of open-ended visual thinking that’s invaluable, whether you’re teaching about historical networks, systems thinking, scientific processes, or anything requiring students to explore connections and relationships.
    The platform is free for educators. Figjam also has new AI capabilities, allowing you to instantly categorize student comments or transform a scattered brainstorm into an organized handout. You can even use Figjam for presentations. To add color and bring boards to life, Figjam includes playful stickers, stamps, and templates specifically designed for teaching and learning — from icebreakers to built-in timers.
    Gamma — Craft superb presentations
    Consider replacing PowerPoint or Google Slides with Gamma. You’ll save time preparing slides and they’ll be more engaging for students. Create vertical, square or horizontal slides. Import existing PDFs or PowerPoint slide decks.
    Unlike PowerPoint, Gamma makes it easy to embed live websites, videos or data visualizations inside your slides to make them stand out. You can even use Gamma to build simple sites, social posts, or interactive lessons.
    Gamma works well without any AI features, for a traditional deck. Or use its AI to jumpstart a new presentation from an outline, text prompt or document you upload. You can export whatever you design to Google Slides or PowerPoint. Or share a link to your presentation. It’s free for educators to get started.
    * Here’s a quick example deck I made about journalism tools.
    * Before Gamma’s most recent popularity boom, I interviewed CEO Grant Lee about why he started the company, which now has 70 million users and a $2.1 Billion valuation.
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    Genially — Create interactive handouts
    Genially is terrific for creating interactive lessons. Add clickable hotspots to any image, timeline, map, or other image. When students interact with your creation, they’ll see informational pop-ups, links, videos, audio files, instructions, or whatever you’ve added. These hotspots transform static visuals — like simple maps or timelines — into engaging, exploratory learning elements. You don’t have to code anything — it’s easy for tech novices to use.
    I’ve used Genially to turn old handouts into resources with embedded audio. Students can click on images to hear brief recorded explanations or anecdotes.
    Examples: I’ve shared tips for day one of teaching, and introduced past cohorts of our entrepreneurial journalism program.
    The free version works well for teachers. You can invite an unlimited number of students into your workspace for free, and Genially is grounded in student privacy. It takes a bit of experimenting to get comfortable with the interface, but once you understand the basics, you can transform dry handouts into interactive, engaging learning materials.
    NotebookLM — Organize and build on your teaching materials
    NotebookLM is a free tool from Google that lets you apply AI to any collection of documents. It’s super useful for searching through your teaching materials, but also for strengthening and repurposing them.
    You can have 100 notebooks in a free NotebookLM account, and each notebook can have 50 sources in it. A source can be a PDF, Word Doc, image, audio file, link or a Google Drive file (Docs, Sheets, or Slides). Each file can be up to 200 MB or 500,000 words. That’s much more than what you can typically upload with Claude or ChatGPT, although limits differ by plan.
    In any given notebook, you can fit dozens of lesson plans, handouts, syllabi, slides, rubrics, or even handwritten notes or voice recordings. NotebookLM makes everything instantly searchable and remixable. Here’s an example notebook about NotebookLM itself.
    NotebookLM’s semantic search can find things in your materials based on level, topic, style or other characteristics. A simple Control-F search can’t do that. You can also use it to adapt teaching materials into new formats. Turn a dense reading into an engaging audio overview students can listen to, or transform a handout into a colorful infographic or slide deck.
    Students can create their own free notebooks and generate flashcards and interactive quizzes to help with studying. They can also use mind maps, infographics, or timelines to visualize connections across topics.
    You can create separate notebooks for each course you teach, or organize one for administrative tasks and another for curriculum development. NotebookLM works only from your uploaded sources — not generic web content. Citations for each query ensure you can validate information and see where it came from.
    Subscription invitation for teachers: I’m glad to always offer free access to all readers to this newsletter, including teachers. If you’re a teacher who would like to join the Wonder Tools inner circle to gain access to live workshops and free AI tools for teachers, you’re invited this week to join at a 20% discount for educators with a .edu email address to celebrate this new series. Reply to this email for the code.


    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe
  • Wonder Tools

    🎧 Podcast Overload? Here's My Fix

    2026/01/30 | 8 mins.
    More than 600,000 podcasts released 27 million episodes in 2025. Keeping up with even a tiny fraction of those 70,000+ daily releases is impossible. So I’ve been exploring new ways to keep up with audio: podcast summaries, audio digests, and cool new tools for finding and saving audio highlights.
    Podsnacks — Get podcast summaries by email
    Get podcast summaries delivered to your email. Catch up on shows you don’t have time to listen to. The free digest includes AI-generated summaries drawn from 25 of the most popular news, business, and tech podcasts. For $5/month, you can get a daily digest of any five podcasts you want. Snipcast is an alternative that offers 2 summaries a month for free or 50 episode summaries for $8/month.
    TL;DL by Headliner — Listen to podcast digests
    If you want to listen to podcast summaries, try TL;DL. Pick up to five podcasts to summarize in 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes. I like that it’s not just an AI-voiced synthesis, but includes excerpted audio clips. You can always click through to hear the full episode. Caveat: expect to wait at least five minutes for each summary, and it’s still in beta. I run into occasional errors.
    Examples: Listen to this summary from my recent podcast interview with Azeem Azhar. Or try this summary of an episode of Shankar Vedantam’s terrific Hidden Brain podcast.
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    Snipd — My favorite podcast app
    Snipd keeps improving. I rely on it mainly because it lets me save highlights from podcasts I’m listening to by tapping my AirPods. The app also provides detailed podcast summaries so I can decide what to listen to. Among the new features I like most:
    * Skip intros and outros that clutter up many podcasts.
    * AI chat with any episode to ask for best quotes, must-listen moments, key takeaways, clarification of a complex idea, or whatever else you want.
    * I love the new “mentioned books” tab. It shows all the books discussed on a particular podcast. Click on a cover to learn more about the author and to see a list of podcasts where that book was discussed.
    * Search by guest. Find and listen to all the podcasts where your favorite author/musician/guru has been interviewed.
    * Listen and highlight audiobooks. Connect a Libro.fm audiobook account and import books with one click to listen to and highlight on Snipd. (Libro supports your local bookstore). Alternatively, find free public domain audiobooks at LibriVox. You can manually upload your own audiobooks.
    Podcast Magic — Save a key audio moment
    When you’re listening to a podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and want to save a highlight, take a screenshot and email it to [email protected]. You’ll get emailed back an audio clip and transcript of the key moment to save or share. It’s a clever way to easily save and share a quote or anecdote.
    Example: One show I highlighted recently was Audio Flux, which The New Yorker picked as one of the 10 best podcasts of 2025. The all-star audio duo commissions and spotlights bold, short-form audio stories. (You can also follow Team Audio Flux on Substack).
    Listen Notes Search for podcast mentions
    Find podcast episodes where you’re mentioned. Type in your name or the name of your organization and search. Or look for interviews with a favorite author or musician. Other useful features:
    * Curated Lists: See recommendations from publications, like the 6 health care podcasts or 7 podcasts for bookworms the NYTimes recommended.
    * Listen Later: Make and share a curated podcast playlist. The playlist has an RSS feed that you can add to any major podcast player. Here’s a playlist of a few shows I like. Here’s a longer list of my favorites.
    Podchaser is a good alternative when you’re looking by topic. I discovered new podcasts about tennis and classical music. Also try the new advanced search by combining terms.
    EarBuds Podcast Collective, founded by podcast guru Arielle Nissenblatt, shares well-curated podcast recommendations. Each week a guest picks five shows to recommend. Example: 5 podcasts about bodies and how we see ourselves. Also: CBC’s Podcast Playlist (RIP) was a great show featuring highlights from all sorts of podcasts. The archive is full of great episodes.
    Perplexity Voice Mode for Web, iOS and Android
    When I don’t have my computer, I prefer searching with my voice to thumb typing on my phone. Querying Perplexity verbally when I’m walking or when my fingers are freezing is convenient because it answers with audio quickly and accurately. I can ask follow-ups for clarification or elaboration. These iterative search conversations let me steer the exploration toward what’s most useful.
    Example: a screenshot of Perplexity’s short reply when I asked what voice search is useful for. Tip: ask Perplexity for its sources to verify its results; voice searches don’t surface those unless you ask.
    Voicebox — Collect audio feedback
    Create your own inbox for voice input. Give anyone your Voicebox link or QR code, and they can leave you an audio message. No typing, no downloads, no forms to fill out. They just share their thoughts in a simple voice memo. It’s like an answering machine for the digital era. Voicebox is marketed as a B2B tool, but anyone can use it as an individual.
    Try it: Leave me a voice message about one thing you do that AI will never be able to replicate. Optionally include your name and email.
    Send an audio note: Tuttu is a super simple free site where you can record and share a voice note. Then email a link to that audio or embed it. Here’s a quick example I recorded about 3 ways you can use Tuttu.
    Alternative: VideoAsk is a slick tool for collecting video or audio feedback instead of a dull form. You can gather 20 minutes of input each month for free. Collecting 100 monthly minutes costs $24/month billed annually.
    Rover AI — Get audio briefs to answer questions
    Rover is an early-stage app that answers your questions with AI-generated audio briefs. Type in a query, wait a few minutes, then listen to your 2-3 minute audio conversation between two AI hosts. Unique feature: Choose from three alternative responses to your query. Example: Listen to a short audio debate about whether Jonathan Franzen is overrated or a genius.
    Alternatives: NotebookLM, which I’ve written about, does a fantastic job of creating audio summaries —or even debates— exploring complex topics. And Huxe, which I wrote about last week, creates useful personalized audio updates. Rover is an earlier-stage experiment, by contrast, focused on brief audio answers to eclectic queries. Become a tester to try it out.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe
  • Wonder Tools

    🗞️ Your News, Your Way

    2026/01/23 | 8 mins.
    I can’t keep up with all the news that interests me. So I’m exploring new ways to get concise, curated updates. Today I’m sharing three new tools I like.
    * Huxe Personalized audio shows drawn from your interests, calendar, & email
    * Google CC A morning summary of your email inbox
    * Yutori Scouts AI agents that monitor your fave topics and deliver reports
    Read on for examples of how each works, and how to make the most of them.
    Huxe — Personalized Audio Updates
    Huxe is a personalized audio app. Whenever I open it I hear a custom podcast it generates on the spot based on my interests, calendar and email. It greets me with what’s important on my calendar and in my inbox. Then the little radio show made for me shares news and feature stories on topics I’m interested in — from AI and tech to teaching and classical music.
    Huxe was co-founded in September by Raiza Martin, who left Google after leading the vision and development of NotebookLM, my favorite AI tool.
    To set up the Huxe app I picked from a list of categories and added some keywords for topics, teams and tech that interest me. I also gave it permission to access my Google Calendar and Gmail. (Connecting those accounts is optional). Huxe is free for now, on iOS or Android. Follow Huxe on LinkedIn where they post interesting updates.
    In addition to a new “for you” audio update generated anytime I open the app, Huxe also has a Discover tab for listening to audio shows curated from online content. Examples of ones I like:
    * Product Drops highlights notable new tech, referencing posts on Product Hunt, the best hub online for new launches
    * Actually Useful has mini case studies about when AI is demonstrably helpful
    * The Tennis Daily gives me interesting updates during the Australian Open
    Design your own briefing
    * Start by pressing the “+” button at the bottom right of the interface
    * On the Research tab, type in a prompt like “What are the latest breast cancer research developments?” or “Newest snack trends in Tokyo?”
    * Alternatively, hit the “Use Sources” tab and add a list of specific sites you like, X handles, RSS feeds, or subreddits.
    Ideas to try
    * Create a personalized learning show with your favorite blogs, newsletter writers, or subreddits you follow. You can add an instruction to give the show a particular focus, tone, or style.
    * Make a guilty pleasure show for stressful days. It can be as niche as you want — it’s just for you. No one has to know what’s in it, though you can choose to share it. Add a list of topics that amuse you, from hobbies to food, pet, or sport trends. Or pick guilty pleasures like favorite TV shows, snacks, or singers.
    * Example: In 60 seconds I curated my own show called Reddit’s Daily Glow based on a few subreddits with inspiring news and interesting facts.
    I used to listen only to podcasts or audiobooks on my commute, but now I mix in these personalized audio updates depending on my mood.
    Customize your briefings
    * Use the “Join” button while listening to anything to inject a live question into the show. Like the interactive audio feature in NotebookLM, it prompts the AI to respond to your query before returning to the audio briefing.
    * In the settings tab, choose two voices you prefer from 19 options.
    Features I hope will be added: I’d like to be able to rewind and jump around more easily in the briefings. Down the road I’d love to pull in podcast, YouTube, and newsletter subscriptions as source material, and get Huxe updates by email or WhatsApp. I’d also love to use Huxe as a curator to create my own shows, mixing in my own voice and content.
    Alternative: I like Mailbrew for creating curated email digests from my favorite newsletters, blogs, subreddits, YouTubers, and more. Read my guide (for paid Wonder Tools subscribers) for more on why I like it and how I use it.
    Another alternative for a quick news overview is Upstract. But that’s basically the entire Internet on one page, which I find overwhelming.
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    Google CC — A Personalized Daily Email Update
    I’m testing a new Google “AI productivity agent.” It’s basically a personalized briefing Gmail now sends me daily. It’s based on new Gmail messages and what’s in my Calendar. Join the waitlist.
    What’s useful about it
    * It saves me from missing out. It surfaces messages I might otherwise overlook. Examples so far: a library message about a reserved book ready for pickup, and a volunteering sign-up deadline.
    * It links directly to key messages. You can click on any briefing item to open the relevant Gmail message.
    * I can reply to customize future briefings. I replied to a briefing asking for Substack-related email updates I might have missed, and it gave me these useful nuggets.
    Yutori Scouts — Get Customized Reports
    Get updates on whatever interests you. Create a detailed query and a team of AI agents will scour the web to keep you up to date. Specify news, shopping, or professional passions, or get updates on particular products, companies, or opportunities. Set your preferred frequency to daily, weekly, or when new info arises. It’s like a more powerful, AI-enhanced version of Google Alerts, which just searches for keywords. Here’s more on how Yutori’s AI agents work.
    How I’m using it…
    * To get an inspiring daily story from Reddit. Here’s a recent example.
    * To see which AI startups are trending on Product Hunt. (You can remix public queries, which serve as useful templates).
    * To keep up with new AI policies in higher ed. I set up a weekly digest to stay up to date for my job at the City University of NY. Here’s a recent update. And this brief video 📺 shows Yutori’s AI agents quickly researching, editing, and delivering the report.👇
    More examples of what Scouts can monitor
    * Niche clothing trends in Tokyo
    * TikTok U.S. daily trends
    * Highly-rated new movies available to stream
    Pricing: Free for one active query; $15/month for 10 scouts on various topics with up to hourly monitoring.


    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wondertools.substack.com/subscribe

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About Wonder Tools

Wonder Tools helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Building on one of Substack's most popular productivity newsletters, each episode of the podcast includes specific tips on how to make the most of these new tools to work creatively and productively. wondertools.substack.com
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