Creating an Interactive Legacy

 

The Question I've Been Wrestling With

Most of us have heard about what AI can do. It's in the daily news, and podcasts. The harder question, especially as we get older, is what should we do with it?

Here's one answer I've been exploring: use it to preserve your life story in a form your family can actually engage with. Not a dusty memoir sitting on a shelf. Not another box of papers in the attic. But something interactive, something your grandchildren can listen to, ask questions of, and respond to.

Think of it as an "Ask Grandpa" chatbot, created with tools you already have.

 

The Problem Legacy Projects Face

I've been thinking about how to share my life experiences with my grandchildren. Not just the big moments, but the small ones too. The lessons I've learned. The mistakes I made. The things I wish someone had told me when I was their age.

We all want to pass these things down, right? But here's what usually happens: writing a full autobiography feels overwhelming. Typing and editing is tiring. You're staring at a blank page wondering where to start. And even if you do write it all down, would your grandkids actually read a 300-page book? Probably not.

So I started asking myself: what if there was a simpler way? What if my grandchildren could just ask me questions whenever they wanted, and get answers in my own words?

That's when I discovered you can actually build something like this, using free tools and your smartphone. No technical skills required. Just a few afternoons of your time.

 

What This Actually Looks Like

Imagine your grandchild picks up their phone and asks: "Grandpa, what was your first job like?" or "What do you remember about first year in high school or college?" And they get an answer that sounds like you, drawn from stories you've already recorded.

It's not science fiction. You can create this today. Let me walk you through exactly what I did.

 

The Building Blocks Approach

If you've read my other posts, you know I like what I call the "building blocks" approach: connecting simple tools together to solve problems. This project uses the same idea. We're going to snap together three simple pieces:

1. A book with questions to guide you
2. Your smartphone to record your answers
3. A free Google tool to turn your stories into something your grandkids can listen to and talk to

 That's it. Each piece is simple. The magic happens when you connect them.

Here's What You Actually Do

First, get yourself a guide. I picked up a copy of "The Book of Myself: A Do-It-Yourself Autobiography in 201 Questions." You can find it on Amazon or at most bookstores.

What I like about this book is it's organized by life stages, your early years, middle years, and later years. Each section asks about your family, friends, school, work, and what was happening in the world around you.

Questions like: "I remember our house, neighborhood and family car in this way." or "My parents felt strongly about passing on these lessons."

You're never staring at a blank page. You're simply answering one thoughtful question at a time. You don't have to answer all 201 questions. I'd say aim for 30 from each section. That's plenty to get started.

Second, just talk. This is the easy part, and it's the breakthrough that makes this whole thing work. Don't write your answers. Talk them.

I used my iPhone's voice-to-text feature. Here's what you do: Open a new document on your phone (I used Microsoft Word, but Notes or Google Docs work fine too). When the keyboard pops up, look for the microphone button. Tap it. Then just start talking.

Read a question from the book and answer it like you're sitting at the kitchen table with your grandchild. Tell the story the way you'd naturally tell it. Your phone captures everything and types it out for you.

(Tip: repeat the question so it's included in the text; this helps with editing, if you so choose.)

This was a revelation for me. Speaking is faster and more natural than typing. Your voice carries personality that writing often flattens. And because I was talking, my answers came out sounding like me, not some stiff, formal autobiography, but actual stories the way I'd tell them in person.

Think of this step as story harvesting, not editing. Imperfect transcription is fine, this is raw material, not a final manuscript.

Third, upload your stories to NotebookLM. This is Google's free tool that does something pretty remarkable. Go to notebooklm.google.com and create a free account (you'll need a Google account, which most people already have).

Create a new project and upload your document, the one with all your transcribed stories. If you wish, you can add letters, emails or other documents. That's it. You don't have to do anything else. The tool reads through your stories and learns about your life.

Here's the part that surprised me: there's a button that says, "Generate audio." When you click it, NotebookLM creates a 10-20 minute podcast where two hosts discuss your life. They talk about themes in your stories, highlight interesting moments, pull out lessons you shared.

Hearing your story reflected back to you is a revelation. It's a bit surreal hearing them discuss your life, but also wonderful.

Fourth, introduce your grandkids to their new chatbot. Now comes the best part, sharing this with your family.

Write your grandchildren an email or text message. This is where the technology becomes relational. Tell them what you've created and why it matters to you.

To share your NotebookLM project, click the three dots in the upper right corner and select "Share." You can generate a link and control who has access, just people with the link, or specific email addresses. Give them the link in your email. Frame it as an invitation, not an assignment.

Show them how to use it: 

•  "Start by listening to the podcast"
•   "Then try asking it questions"

I suggest including a few starter questions to get them going:

• "Tell me about your childhood home and neighborhood"
• "What was your first job like?"
• "What did you learn the hard way?"
• "What do you remember about your grandparents?"

 Then invite them to explore on their own. Ask them to tell you about the experience. What did they learn? What surprised them?

That last part matters. Legacy should be a conversation, not a broadcast.

 

What Makes This Work

The secret is in how these pieces connect. The book gives you structure so you're not staring at a blank page. Talking instead of writing makes it feel natural. NotebookLM takes your stories and makes them searchable and conversational.

None of these tools were designed to work together for this purpose. But when you connect them this way, you end up with something that didn't exist before—a way for your grandchildren to have conversations with your memories.

You've created an on-ramp. A way in.

 

A Few Things I Learned

You don't need to be perfect. Your stories don't need to be polished. In fact, they're better when they're not. The little asides, the way you pause to remember a detail, the way you'd naturally tell a story—that's what makes it authentic.

Start small. Don't try to answer all 201 questions in one sitting. Do five or ten at a time. It's less overwhelming, and you can always add more stories later.

This is ongoing, not finished. We often think of legacy as something static, carved in stone, complete. This flips that idea around. You can add more stories. Your grandchildren can ask new questions, and you can create a supplemental document with new questions and answers as they arise and upload this to NotebookLM. It's curious. It's conversational.

Privacy and security matter. While your stories are only available to those you give access to, they are stored in the cloud and subject to Google's privacy policies. So I would not include financial information, passwords, or other sensitive personal details.

 

Why This Matters

I keep thinking about my grandchildren, the conversations we'll have, the questions they'll ask as they grow older.

With this approach, they'll be able to ask questions even when I'm not around. They can discover what I thought about, what I cared about, what advice I'd give them. And they'll hear it in my own words.

Not "Here's what I did." But "Ask me anything."

You can create the same thing. A week or so of talking to your phone. That's all it takes.

 

What Do You Think?

Have you thought about trying something like this? Are you thinking about creating your own legacy project? What questions would you want your grandchildren to be able to ask you?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment or send me a note. The stories are in you. All you have to do is start talking.

 

Full disclosure: I used ChatGPT 5.2 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 to help draft this post. I provided the outline and I edited the final copy you are reading, another collaborative use of AI.

Note: This post describes my experience creating a personal legacy chatbot using free tools. Your experience may vary, but the basic approach works for anyone willing to spend a week or so sharing their stories.