Wonder Tools ☀️ Start a summer project

Ideas for inspiration 🧪 and tools to try

Summer’s an ideal time to make something new. Read on for ideas and tools to explore. Join us: On July 12 at 12pm ET I’ll host a live show & tell session online for paid subscribers. I’ll demo these & other new sites and apps.

1. Curate a digital collection with Listium 👑

Pick a subject you care about and make a curated collection to share with friends or colleagues. Gather useful links, notable books, terrific podcasts or memorable videos.

• Listium presents your collection in a variety of ways, with list, card, table, grid or slide views. Examples: influential creators, best business books

• Alternative tools include Airtable, which I used to collect notable podcasts, or Notion, which Pascio used to make this collection of 150 ChatGPT copywriting prompts.

Listium lets you create, publish and share lists like this collection of creators

2. Record a family interview with Storycorps 🎙️

Interview loved ones while you have the chance, whether they’re aging relatives or fast-growing kids. Since 2003, more than 630,000 people have recorded conversations about their lives, some of which have aired on NPR.

Now Storycorps Connect lets you record your own remote interview online. Or upload and save a recording of an in-person conversation. Draw from Storycorps’ excellent question collection, then use Descript or Adobe Podcast to clean up your recording.

3. Craft a small moments journal | The Art of Noticing 📔

Author

Rob Walker

recently proposed a “never again” notebook for recording fleeting experiences. Think of it as a playful diary for documenting a delightful new food or a chance encounter this summer with an old friend.

These moments aren’t things you can set out to experience, in advance, like a so-called bucket list. You have to be alert to discover them, and no two people will have anything close to the same collection of moments. And that’s the whole point. -

The Art of Noticing

Avril Orloff created this. See her lovely Instagram images.

4. Make a mini documentary with Kapwing 🎥

Gather family images and make a narrated video. Or use the app’s open-source photos & videos to create a short doc on a subject you care about.

Kapwing’s free Web-based video editor makes it easy to put together a little film even if you’ve never done it before. It’s more versatile than built-in Mac or PC video editors and simpler than pro video editing software.

5. Compose with Chrome Music Lab 🎶

Dabble in playful composing, even if you have no musical experience. Explore a bunch of digital instruments and sound games and save your favorite clips to share. The sounds feel more human than the AI-generated results of Google’s MusicLM or Meta’s music generator. Bonus: try the Arts & Culture Experiments.

Chrome Music Lab is fun for kids but equally amusing for grown-ups...

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I value your feedback: suggestions, requests, & observations are welcome: 📩 jeremy at jeremycaplan dot com. Or comment below.👇

🧑🏼‍💻 Try Camo to look better in video meetings

Wonder Tools 🐬 AI to try