Why I built a NotebookLM alternative (and still use NotebookLM)

A few days ago someone replied to me on X, very politely, that NotebookLM already does what Filmina does, and that it's a beast. They're right about the second part: NotebookLM is one of the best study tools to come out in years, and I use it. Since then, a bunch of people have asked me the same thing. If NotebookLM exists, why build a NotebookLM alternative at all?

The short answer: NotebookLM is a great toolbox, and what I needed was a path. It's excellent for research, for pulling sources together and for listening to a topic while you do something else. What it didn't give me was one place for all my courses, something that explained my lecture slides while I looked at them, and a way to get from the first lecture to the exam step by step.

Here's how I use each one, where NotebookLM fell short for me, and what Filmina turned into. Fair warning: I built Filmina, so keep that in mind as you read.

I use it, and I think it's excellent

Let me start here, because this isn't a post against NotebookLM:

• Lots of sources at once. You drop in the lecture slides, the course reader, three papers and a video, and it works across all of them.
• It answers with citations. It tells you which source each claim comes from, which is what makes it trustworthy.
• The podcast is genuinely good. Two hosts talking about your material are much easier to listen to than a single narrator.
• It has real study tools. Flashcards, quizzes, mind maps, study guides and video overviews.
• It's free to start, and it has Google behind it.

For a first pass on a topic you've never seen, or for a paper where you need to read ten different sources, it's hard to beat.

The podcast wasn't enough to learn a lecture

I listen to NotebookLM audio overviews all the time. I make one for a lecture and play it while walking, commuting or doing the dishes. For reviewing something I've already covered, it works really well.

The problem came when I actually had to learn a slide deck. The podcast tells you what the material is about, in its own way and its own order. You hear "the key idea here is working memory", but you're not looking at slide 12, where that diagram was. And on exam day, what's in front of you isn't the audio. It's whatever the professor gave you.

For listening while you do something else, the podcast is great. For going deep on a topic, it wasn't enough for me.

What I was looking for and couldn't find

Filmina started because I needed it, which I wrote about in why I made Filmina. I wanted someone to explain my lecture slides out loud, one slide at a time, while I looked at them. Skipping nothing, pointing at the part of the page being explained, and asking me a question at the end of each slide to check I'd actually got it.

I looked for it and couldn't find it in any product. There were text-to-speech readers, chatbots you could upload a PDF to, and tools like NotebookLM that summarize your material their own way. Even its video overviews make their own slides; they don't walk you through yours, in order. What I wanted was closer to having the professor sitting next to me with the deck open.

So I built it. And once I started using it to study for real, I realized that on its own it wasn't enough.

A box of tools vs. one place to study

For the last five years, all my lecture notes and materials lived in Notion. I wrote about it in why I stopped using Notion for taking notes: it kept everything organized, but it was very manual and it didn't help me study. It didn't guide me, didn't build a study plan and didn't make me practice.

NotebookLM was the opposite. Powerful tools, but loose ones. Each notebook is an island with its own sources, and what you do with them is up to you: when to generate the podcast, when to ask for a quiz, when to make a mind map. There's no structured way to organize your courses, your lectures and your notes, and nothing that tells you what to study today to be ready for the final.

One had the structure without the help, the other had the help without the structure. And I was the glue between them, with three tabs open at 1 a.m.

What Filmina turned into

What I did was take the best part of each tool, put it in one place, and keep it simple.

• All your material in one place. A folder for each course with its lectures, your notes and anything else you add: books, documents, audio and YouTube videos. Notes work like in Notion and live inside each lecture.
• It explains every slide. Mina, Filmina's voice, walks you through the deck out loud in lecture order, with a frame around the part she's talking about. She reads the charts, diagrams and tables too, not just the text.
• You practice along the way, not just at the end. After each slide there's a question about what was just explained. Then there's Practice, with short questions, and Review, to see what stuck. Pulling something out of memory is harder than listening again, which is exactly why it works.
• A plan up to the exam. Tell a course when your exam is, what format it takes and which lectures are on it, and it builds a study plan from what's left and the time you have.
• If something doesn't click, ask. Mina answers from your lectures, your notes and your material, and tells you where each answer comes from. If it goes beyond your material, it says so.

The point is to practice from the first lecture, not the night before. It's all built around what college actually looks like: the professor's slides, half-finished notes and an exam date. How it explains each slide, and how that differs from the podcast, is covered in detail in the NotebookLM comparison.

What NotebookLM still does better

To be fair, there are things NotebookLM does better than Filmina, and there's no point hiding them:

• The two-host podcast. Filmina explains with a single voice, with the slide in front of you. For listening without looking at anything, NotebookLM's is better.
• Research across many sources. A notebook with dozens of documents and a citation to each. Mina also answers from the whole course and the material you add, but the voice explanation goes one deck at a time.
• More free usage. NotebookLM's free plan is generous. Filmina's has a monthly cap on minutes; what each plan includes is on the pricing section.
• Scanned PDFs. Filmina can't read scanned photocopies. You need to run them through OCR first or upload the original deck.

When I use each one

I use both, for different moments:

• NotebookLM for the first pass and for listening on the go. When I don't know what a topic is about yet, when I have lots of sources to combine, or when I want to review on the bus.
• Filmina for sitting down to study. When I have the professor's deck in front of me, an exam date, and I need to understand all of it, practice and know what's left.

If you're deciding between them, my advice is not to pick in advance: try both on the same lecture and see which one sticks. What matters isn't the tool, it's that studying gets easier.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between Filmina and NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is a toolbox for working with your sources: podcasts, citations, flashcards, quizzes and mind maps. Filmina is a place to study your courses: it explains each slide out loud while you look at it, makes you practice along the way and builds a plan up to the exam.

Is Filmina a NotebookLM alternative?

For studying a lecture deck with the screen in front of you, yes. For a podcast you listen to without looking, or for research across dozens of sources, NotebookLM does things Filmina doesn't.

Is NotebookLM good for studying?

Yes, very, especially for a first pass and for combining sources. What it doesn't do is organize your courses or guide you up to the exam: which tool to use and when is up to you.

Does Filmina make a podcast from my notes?

No. Filmina has a voice that explains the slide you're looking at, in lecture order, and shows you on the page which part it's talking about. At the end of each slide it asks you a question so you practice.