You have to give an impromptu 20 minute talk on any subject in front of a large group. What will you talk about?

Trucking industry, road safety, and the idiocy of privatizing highway maintenance .

Jane Austen

Medieval cathedrals and their iconography

Watercolor painting techniques

Problem dogs (Frodo Baggins)

Surviving divorce after a long marriage

Changes in the library field and research in the past 20 years

If they are 11th graders and their parents, I could talk about life after high school, specifically college placement.

I could wax rhapsodic on gardening, property management and pruning.

Possibly how to survive the first year with your first cat.

Alternative energy sources, peak oil, energy consumption, cost and how they all play together.

Birds, wild life, waterfowl, psychology, horses, animal behavior, gardening, dysfunctional relationships, crotchety, demented old people.
I could combine facts with comedy on all of these topics so might opt for 20 minutes of educational stand up comedy. haha

I would be able to speak 20 minutes without notes on the following: geriatrics, flower gardening, the health care industry, domestic violence, the beef industry.

If I was asked to entertain a group for 20 minutes, no matter how large or small, I could easily pull up a 20 minute set-list. However, if I was limited to speaking, I could come up with 20 minutes of first-person stories. Not necessarily a comic monologue, but a monologue nonetheless.

Managing pregnancy and parenting as a result of rape, strategies for coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, the power of positive thinking, overcoming depression, labor and delivery, surviving (and enjoying) life with a newborn, having a teenager and a newborn, preparing for blending a family, cloth diapering, how to consult with your partner, my parenting philosophies, clean eating.

I know a lot about public health, data management and analysis, setting up databases and the US healthcare system… but my ability to give an impromptu talk would depend on whether I could gather my thoughts and write an outline beforehand.

Linguistics and language history

Homosexuality and LGBT issues

I’m sure people would love hearing about that… ;)

I thought there was an “X” up there.

The changes now taking place in China
The life and the music of Frank Zappa.
(Ten minutes for each)

^ I could so totally run with this but it might be considered inappropriate. haha

speaking and showing absolute proof of bias in Media. <wonder if I’m allowed to say this here>

@BeenThereSaidThat Presumably you would be talking about bias in both liberal and conservative mediums?

Sports knowledge
Movie trivia
Parenting
Titties

@janbb is there any reason why you called only me out on my post?

Just asked a question.

@janbb well I’m not playin.. bye bye.

Do I have to?

Dogs. Dog training, to be specific. I’d easily be able to talk about that for longer than twenty minutes.

Apart from that, I could talk about education for quite a while. I would talk about the “free school” movement, and about A. S. Neill.

Buffy

Xena, zombies, old school video games and horror movies. I may not be super informed on these subjects, but I sure can find a lot to say about them. Xena has a hell of a lot of loop holes, too.

Something to do with modern dog training and behaviour.

20 minutes is a looooong time without prep, notes, or questions. That’s longer than TED talks for reference.

I think most of the things we understand that well are either extremely specific and wouldn’t be all that interesting to a mixed group (think of trade conferences), or general and have been experienced by most people so it ends up being more about your personal take on it, right?

The only thing I can think of in the middle, that I could speak on, would be how different types of people choose their profession. When we decide to trade our time for money in some way, how do we pick what will work for us?

The country’s history.
Averger’s syndrome.
How to master a foreign language.

Working in retail.

Perfume.

Management styles.

Cholesterol (this would be mostly about my personal experience, I don’t think I would say I am an expert since I am not a medical doctor).

Hypothyroid (again not a doctor, just my experience).

Chronic pain.

Porsche Club of America (only interesting to Porsche owners).

Disney World tips.

Communication. Explaining how perception is everything, how things get misunderstood, and that things aren’t always black and white.

If there was a kitchen I could do a cooking show of sorts and make a few dishes, explain some techniques. I could do from scratch or semi-homemade.

The Lost Art of Common Courtesy.

Highway lane discipline.

The smoker as second class citizen.

Emotion VS Logic: The exasperating irony of the liberal mindset.

Extortion and Duress: Theft of personal property by the TSA.

The Return of the Individual: How you can be part of the post racist world.

Assimilation or Invasion?: Immigration In Modern Times.

This thread sounds like a Fluther version of Ted Talks

I thought of one more. How to hold and use a fork and knife, how to shake hands, even throw in the basics of setting a table.

It’s My Car’s Fender, Not a Park Bench.

Yes, 20 minutes.

Logic

Community management
Survive and thrive after a rotten childhood
...and that’s about it. Dang.

The only things I know enough about to talk about for that long are inflammatory bowel disease and programming.

It’s a cocktail, not a salad: Proper Martini garnishment.

Roots of American (US) Folk Music, from Pre-Columbian times to the present.

@Yetanotheruser I’d like to hear that.

I could also give a 20 minute talk/demonstration on: The Accordion: Not Just for Polkas!

Is it important that the audience is interested, amused or even in the room for the entire 20 minutes?

@gailcalled If it isn’t I would give a talk to Milo about the difficulties of portrait painting.

He loved it, but did ask for his green eyes to be more visible next time and to add a few white whiskers. (And my friend Sandy is probably serious about a commission. Let me know.)

You did say, “Something that might sustain the interest of a random bunch of people for this long?”

-Providence
-Catholicism
-Mario Kart Double Dash
-The hotels of Las Vegas, past and present
-All of the buildings I’ve drawn (I could spend 20 minutes on just one of them, but would it sustain the audience?)