Putting NotebookLM to the Test - Again
NotebookLM is an extraordinary tool that enables us to streamline the research and writing process by synthesizing information from a curated set of sources. By uploading documents—such as interview transcripts, scholarly articles, web pages, and PDFs—we can create a custom knowledge base that the AI can “read” and reason with. This enables us to ask complex questions, generate summaries, compare viewpoints, and draft content based on the materials we’ve selected.
NotebookLM is like a research assistant who never forgets a detail, helping us surface insights quickly and accurately. We consider it to be our partner in creative and critical thinking.
We're demonstrating the power of NotebookLM in a series of Smartacus Civic Conversations. With NotebookLM, for example, we generated in three hours this feature on Terry Diggory, founder of the Saratoga Immigration Coalition.
Beau Breslin spoke recently at the Saratoga Springs Public Library on the challanges confronting today’s Supreme Court.
Now we have an opportunity demonstrate NotebookLM's power in generating a magazine-length feature on Skidmore College Constitutional law scholar Beau Breslin, spotlighting especially his proposal that we explore convening a new constitutional convention to address the challenges of governing with a document written more than 230 years ago. Because so much has been published on Breslin's arguments, it was easy to find and upload into NotebookLM 11 sources that report on his thinking about the Constitution at considerable length.
We then informed NotebookLM we wanted its help in drafting a magazine-length feature on Breslin to be titled: Can the Constitution Save Us?
This was our prompt: "Drawing on the entirety of what you know about Breslin's thinking, please generate the ten best questions we should ask him.”
In an hour-long conversation we'll host in Zoom Tuesday, June 3rd, at 9 a.m., we'll pose these questions to Breslin. We’ll then feed the transcript of our conversation to NotebookLM, “Here are the answers you wanted. Now write your story.”
Breslin will be the best equipped to evaluate the quality of NotebookLM’s piece. Will it be “publication-ready”? That’s the test.
Here’s the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5184870165
It’s an experiment in civic journalism. Join us.
Can the Constitution Save Us?
AI’s Ten Questions for Beau Breslin
Offering NotebookLM the 11 uploaded sources listed in the column on the left, we tasked it with generating the ten best questions to ask Beau Breslin in researching a feature titled: Can the Constitution Save Us? We’ll pose these questions to Breslin in our Civic Conversation, then ask NotebookLM to write its magazine-length story from them.
Question 1: Constitutional Durability and Democratic Decline. You’ve said the U.S. may be “approaching Rome at the end of its republic,” and that this is perhaps the “worst political moment” in your lifetime. How does your study of generational constitutional change help illuminate today’s political dysfunction? In what ways do you think the Constitution, as it currently stands, is failing to sustain democratic governance?
Question 2: Jefferson vs. Madison Revisited. You began your project as “fully a Madisonian” but have since said you’re “not so sure.” What developments in today’s political landscape led you to rethink Madison’s argument for endurance and reconsider Jefferson’s call for regular constitutional renewal?
Question 3: Outdated Structures and Resistance to Reform. You’ve described the Second Amendment as a “real head scratcher,” noted the erasure of the Ninth Amendment from contemporary interpretation, and called the Senate the “most undemocratic institution” in American government—especially in light of the filibuster. How do these elements, rooted in 18th-century design, contribute to current dysfunction, and why are they so resistant to reform through the traditional amendment process?
Question 4: Originalism and Judicial Power. You’ve criticized the Supreme Court’s reliance on originalism, calling it a “fraud” that often ignores historical complexity. How do you see the judiciary’s current approach exacerbating the Constitution’s rigidity, and does the Court’s expanding power support your argument for a more fundamental mechanism of constitutional adaptation?
Breslin wrote A Constitution for the Living as a thought experiment that started as a conversation with a student. Published by Stanford University Press published in 2022, it was awarded a Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
Question 5: Why a Convention—and Why Now May Not Work. Given your critique that Article V sets the bar for amendments too high, you've suggested that a national constitutional convention might be a more viable path forward. Why do you believe traditional legislative and amendment tools are no longer sufficient? What would a convention offer that those mechanisms cannot?
Question 6: Lessons from Imagined Conventions. In A Constitution for the Living, you imagine constitutional conventions in 1825, 1863, 1903, 1953, and 2022. What do these thought experiments suggest about the benefits of such a process today? Which unresolved issues—such as the Senate, race, or gun rights—might realistically be addressed through a convention but remain inaccessible via other avenues?
Question 7: Risks of a Convention in Today’s Climate. You've acknowledged that now may not be the right time for a convention and that many fear it would be hijacked by special interests or extremists. What are the greatest political and societal risks of calling a convention in today’s climate, and what would have to change to make one viable?
Question 8: Designing a Deliberative Convention. Considering the risks, you've described possible solutions: using jury-duty-style randomization, public input, and even algorithms to select rational and representative delegates. What structural safeguards would be necessary to ensure a convention is fair, functional, and capable of producing legitimate constitutional reform?
Question 9: Toward Radical Reform and Civic Rebirth. You’ve said that framers tend to be “small-c conservatives,” but that today’s crisis demands “radical ideas.” What significant, perhaps progressive, changes do you believe a constitutional convention could realistically pursue to meet 21st-century challenges? What reforms could ignite the “rebirth of American civic consciousness” you envision?
Question 10: If Not a Convention—What Then? If a constitutional convention remains politically infeasible, what other steps could help us move toward renewal? You've floated ideas like national public service or simulated conventions. What initiatives could we take now to rebuild civic trust and prepare the ground for deeper reform?
