Show HN: Narralize – Turn PDFs into Podcast-Style Summaries in 29 Languages

[spacelyn]

Hi HN,

I've been working on Narralize, a tool that turns PDFs into podcast-style audio summaries in 29 languages. You can try it instantly on the homepage without creating an account: narralize.com.

How It Works: 1. A user uploads a PDF document. 2. OpenAI detects the source language and generates a summary in that language. 3. The summary is translated to the target language. 4. The translated text is sent to ElevenLabs for text-to-speech conversion.

All of this runs on a Node.js backend, and I’ve also developed an API for 3rd-party integrations, enabling other applications to leverage Narralize's infrastructure.

Key Use Cases: Newsletter Summaries: Content creators can generate multilingual podcast-style summaries to engage a global audience. International Students: Narralize helps students quickly understand academic papers and course materials in their native language, making education more accessible. I’d love your feedback on how it works, the technical approach, or ideas for additional use cases. Feel free to try it out and share your thoughts!

[jamescridland]

This is nice, though Google's NotebookLM (and similar products from ElevenLabs and Meta) offer much the same thing for free.

[spacelyn]

Yes, this was inspired by NotebookLM. Developed an API system that allows one to extend it towards their own apps, too. Thank you for checking it out. Much appreciated.