The shift away from Google Assistant, and into the Gemini era, is nearly in its last stages. One can feel nostalgic about the eponymous virtual assistant, but it’s undeniable that the arrival of Gemini has truly changed what an AI agent can do for us.
The language understanding chops are far better with Gemini. Conversations are natural, app interactions are fluid, integration with other Google products is rewarding, and even in its free state, Gemini takes Siri to the cleaners even on an iPhone.
There are, however, a few tricks that put Gemini in an altogether different league. Deep Research is one of those agentic features that I use on a daily basis and continue to be amazed at. In March, Google added another rewarding feature to the Gemini arsenal: Audio Overviews.
Turning it all, into a podcast


How it helped me?

Research published in Computers & Education journal also highlighted how students found audio files to be the superior learning and revision material. Flexibility, and sensory versatility, played a major role in their preference for podcasts over other media.
“True understanding and long-term retention happen when listening is paired with visuals, discussions, or hands-on activities,” Naseem adds. My own experiences with Gemini’s audio overviews echo his advice. I have a stronger recollection of the knowledge I absorbed via the audio podcasts compared to reading the same material.
You see, these audio podcasts are not a simple text-to-audio conversion. Instead, they break down an otherwise boring wall of text into a two-person conversation that you are essentially the sole audience to. It’s a boon for any text-based material that doesn’t instantly spark your curiosity and goads you into an instant reading.
In my most recent experiment, Gemini’s audio podcast helped me understand the significance of a paper discussing“a framework for interpretable neural learning based on local information-theoretic goal functions.” In simpler terms, the research discussed how nerve cells organize themselves.
You get the point I’m trying to make here, right?
Convenience, above all

Convenience plays an important role when it comes to absorbing information. And so does enthusiasm and excitement about the whole process. As per a paper published in the Computers in Human Behavior journal, podcasts “enhance convenience, flexibility and accessibility to information and knowledge.” It didn’t take me long to realize that.
Living in the national capital, spending anywhere between 2-3 hours stuck in a traffic or public commute is a daily reality for me. But more than the discomfort of it all, it’s the wasted time that hurts the most. Audio learning material offers the most convenient way to utilize that time in a productive fashion.
With Gemini, you have another crucial benefit. You don’t have to rely on the audio availability of a certain book, news article, or academic material. You can just download whatever material is at your disposal, and Gemini will turn it into a podcast-style conversation.
There is plenty of multi-disciplinary research out that supports the benefits of an audio-based approach to learning. And it’s not solely about listening, but more about breaking things down and presenting them in a more approachable fashion.
“A couple of folks have said … they like the fact we’re giving them some stuff they’re not reading in the newspaper. They like the fact … we’re trying to introduce ourselves in a different way,” says a research paper citing a news editor. The paper, courtesy of Syracuse University, was published in 2006 during the very early days of the podcast trend.

As of 2025, podcasts have become a veritable phenomenon for consuming information, from educational material to entertainment stuff. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly half of Americans have engaged with podcasts. Over half of the surveyed audience listened to podcasts for learning, for entertainment, or to have some audio material while doing something else.
Nearly a third wanted to hear other people’s opinions, and another equally large segment was hooked up so that they could keep an eye on news and current events. My engagement didn’t fall too far away from the aforementioned pattern. For long-form journalism stories or investigative work, I often found their podcast version more pleasing.
More effective, too
Research published in the Journal of Social Media Marketing highlighted concepts such as media substitution and functional similarity in the context of listening to media and the audience’s willingness. The overarching idea is that users evaluate the medium and pick the one that suits them the most.
“For the uniqueness of podcast contents, the influence on listening willingness and media substitution is positive, suggesting that unique contents, high quality and wide diversity make people want to listen podcasts,” says the paper. I can personally attest to this finding, as well.
— Nadeemonics (@nsnadeemsarwar) March 30, 2025
Over the past few days, I have “podcast-ified” numerous research papers discussing the impact of fiber, meat, and packaged food consumption on sleep patterns, cognitive health, and gut health. Compared to the overtly technical tone of scientific papers, having two hosts break down the findings with a “sentimental” and “persuasive” tone had a discernibly deeper effect on me.
Think of it as learning about social etiquettes or cultural sensitivities in a book. And years later, seeing them in action with your own eyes. Or, think about learning a foreign language from a book, all on your own, and the difference it makes when you learn it from a person filling all that knowledge into your ears.
The latter approach reaps better results. And that’s primarily because the compound effect of multi-sensory engagement speeds up the learning process, or just makes it more effective. Gemini’s Audio Overviews have created a similar effect, and they’ve helped me a lot.
A few snags

Gemini won’t let you do that. Not yet.
