Skip to Main Content

Topic Suggestions: Speeches

A guide to topics that could be developed into research projects or speeches, arranged by subject areas or categories

General Topics

Many of these topics are broad and would need to be narrowed for a speech.  For example advertising could become political attack ads or tobacco ads.

  • Abandoned children

  • Abuse of animals

  • Abuse of children

  • Abuse of medication

  • Abuse of spouse

  • Abuse of the elderly

  • Academic dishonesty

  • Academic freedom

  • Accidents, aircraft

  • Accidents, fraudulent

  • Accidents, industrial

  • Accidents, prevention

  • Accidents, sports

  • Accidents, traffic

  • Acid rain

  • Addiction to drugs

  • Adoption of children

  • Adoption of wild animals

  • Advertising

  • Aerobic exercise

  • African killer bee

  • Age and discrimination

  • Age and intelligence

  • Agricultural pests

  • AIDS

  • Air bags, automobile

  • Air pollution

  • Alcohol and drugs

  • Alternative fuels

  • Alternative imprisonment

  • Alternative medicine

  • Alzheimer’s disease

  • Amusement parks, safety

  • Animal communication

  • Animal experimentation

  • Animal extinction

  • Animal training

  • Anti-theft devices for cars

  • Antibiotics

  • Antioxidants

  • Antismoking movement

  • Anxiety attacks

  • Aquariums

  • Architectural design

  • Art therapy

  • Art treasures

  • Assassinations

  • Assisted suicide

  • Asteroids

  • Astronauts

  • Athletes, nutrition

  • Athletes, psychology

  • Athletes, women

  • Auctions

  • Automobiles, electric

  • Automobiles, safety

  • Back pain

  • Bald eagle

  • Beekeeping

  • Behavior, compulsive

  • Behavior, Type A

  • Bicycles, commuting

  • Billboards

  • Biotechnology & genetics

  • Bird-watching

  • Blood banks

  • Blood pressure

  • Bombings

  • Bone marrow

  • Books and censorship

  • Burglary protection

  • Caffeine

  • Calcium

  • Cancer

  • Capital punishment

  • Car theft

  • Cave drawings

  • Cell phone etiquette

  • Censorship in the arts

  • Charities

  • Checking accounts

  • Child labor laws

  • Child support

  • Children and war

  • Children of AIDS patients

  • Children of the mentally ill

  • Cholesterol

  • Chronic fatigue syndrome

  • City planning

  • Civil liberties

  • Clean water

  • Climatic changes

  • Cloning

  • Cocaine

  • College athletes

  • College costs

  • College campus crimes

  • Common cold

  • Communication, family

  • Communication, medicine

  • Commuting

  • Computer fraud

  • Computer graphics

  • Computer viruses

  • Con artists

  • Consumer protection

  • Contamination of water

  • Coral reef ecology

  • Cosmetic surgery

  • Cosmic rays

  • Coyotes

  • Credit card fraud

  • Credit card misuse

  • Crime prevention

  • Criminal behavior

  • Cults

  • Day care centers

  • Death, accidental

  • Debt relief

  • Deep-sea ecology

  • Deficit spending

  • Depletion of ozone layer

  • Depression, mental

  • Desalinization of water

  • Designated drivers

  • Diabetes

  • Diagnosis, ultrasonic

  • Diet and nutrition

  • Digital music

  • Digital television

  • Dinosaur discoveries

  • Disaster victims

  • Discrimination, AIDS

  • Discrimination, disabilities

  • Discrimination, gays & lesbians

  • Discrimination, gender

  • Discrimination, weight

  • DNA fingerprints

  • Dog racing

  • Dolphins

  • Drinking and driving

  • Dyslexia

  • Earth-friendly products

  • Earthquakes

  • Elderly drivers

  • Electronic books

  • Electronic mail (e-mail)

  • Electronic music

  • Employee crimes

  • Endangered species

  • Environmental protection

  • Epidemics

  • Ethics, business

  • Ethics, medical

  • Ethnic cleansing

  • Euphemisms

  • Euthanasia

  • Evidence, criminal

  • Expert witnesses

  • False memory syndrome

  • Family therapy

  • Family violence

  • Famines

  • Fashion design

  • Fetal alcohol syndrome

  • Fiber optics

  • Fingerprints

  • Fire ants

  • Firefighting

  • Flea markets

  • Folk medicine

  • Food allergy

  • Food poisoning

  • Forest conservation

  • Forgery

  • Fossils

  • Foster parents

  • Galaxies

  • Gambling

  • Gardening

  • Generic drugs

  • Genetic engineering

  • Geothermal power

  • Gerrymander

  • Glaucoma

  • Global warming

  • Glue-sniffing

  • Gold discoveries

  • Gorillas

  • Government secrecy

  • Grand jury

  • Gray wolves

  • Great Wall of China

  • Green movement

  • Greenhouse effect

  • Grief

  • Grizzly bear

  • Groundwater pollution

  • Growth hormones

  • Guerrilla warfare

  • Gullah dialect

  • Gun control

  • Gymnastics

  • Habitual criminals

  • Hailstorms

  • Haiti

  • Hallucinations

  • Hallucinogenic drugs

  • Ham radio

  • Handwriting

  • Harassment, sexual

  • Hate crimes

  • Hay fever

  • Hazardous materials

  • Hazing

  • Headaches

  • Health care reform

  • Health foods

  • Health of workers

  • Hearing impairments

  • Heart disease

  • Heart transplants

  • Hemophilia

  • Hepatitis

  • Herbal medicine

  • Heredity of disease

  • Heroin

  • High blood pressure

  • High speed trains

  • Highway safety

  • Hijacking of automobiles

  • Historic preservation

  • HIV infections

  • Holistic medicine

  • Holocaust, Jewish

  • Holocaust, Native American

  • Home accidents

  • Home design

  • Home schooling

  • Homeless persons

  • Homeopathy

  • Homophobia

  • Homosexuality

  • Honeybees

  • Horse-racing

  • Housefly

  • Hunger

  • Hunting

  • Hurricanes

  • Hydrogen as fuel

  • Hydroponics

  • Hyperactive children

  • Hypnotism

  • Illegal aliens

  • Illiteracy

  • Immigrants

  • Immune system

  • In vitro fertilization

  • Income tax

  • Incurable diseases

  • Indoor air pollution

  • Industrial diseases

  • Industrial robots

  • Inequality of income

  • Influenza

  • Injuries, treatment

  • Insanity defense

  • Insect-eating plants

  • Insects as food

  • Insomnia

  • Insurance, car

  • Insurance, health

  • Insurance, life

  • Intelligence tests

  • International language

  • Internet privacy

  • Intolerance

  • Invasion of privacy

  • Investments

  • Iron deficiency diseases

  • Jails, overcrowding

  • Jet lag

  • Jewels

  • Job hunting

  • Job sharing

  • Junk in space

  • Junk mail

  • Juries

  • Juvenile delinquents

  • Kangaroos

  • Kidnapping, parental

  • Killer bees

  • Kleptomania

  • Labor disputes

  • Laboratories, testing

  • Lakes, pollution

  • Landfills

  • Landlords and tenants

  • Language disorders

  • Laser surgery

  • Latchkey children

  • Layoffs

  • Lead poisoning

  • Learning disabilities

  • Legalization of drugs

  • Libel and slander

  • Lie detectors

  • Lightning

  • Limousines

  • Living trusts

  • Living wills

  • Loans, student

  • Low-calorie diet

  • Low-cholesterol diet

  • Low-fat diet

  • LSD

  • Macrobiotic diet

  • Mafia

  • Magic

  • Mail-order catalogs

  • Mandatory sentences

  • Manic-depression

  • Maps

  • Marathon running

  • Marijuana

  • Marine aquariums

  • Marine pollution

  • Marriage customs

  • Mass murder

  • Massage

  • Math anxiety

  • Medical errors

  • Medicinal plants

  • Medicine, preventive

  • Melanoma

  • Memory techniques

  • Mental disorders

  • Mental retardation

  • Meteorites

  • Metric system

  • Microsurgery

  • Microwave cookery

  • Midwifery

  • Migraines

  • Migrant labor

  • Military weapons

  • Militias

  • Misdiagnosis

  • Moon, exploration

  • Moonlighting

  • Motorcycle gangs

  • Mound-builders

  • Mouth, diseases

  • Multiple personality

  • Multiple sclerosis

  • Murders, serial

  • Muscular dystrophy

  • Mushrooms

  • Music therapy

  • Mythology

  • Names, geographic

  • Names, personal

  • Narcotic laws

  • National parks

  • Naturopathy

  • Neo-Nazis

  • Neanderthals

  • Nicotine addiction

  • No-fault auto insurance

  • Nuclear energy

  • Nuclear proliferation

  • Nursing homes

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder

  • Occupational therapy

  • Ocean dumping

  • Ocean fishing

  • Older workers

  • Online auctions

  • Online investing

  • Open adoption

  • Opium

  • Optical fibers

  • Oral tradition

  • Ordination of women

  • Organically grown food

  • Organized crime

  • Outer space, exploration

  • Ozone layer

  • Pain relievers

  • Pandas

  • Parent-child relations

  • Performance art

  • Pesticides

  • Phobias

  • Plants, extinction

  • Plants, medicinal

  • Plea bargaining

  • Poaching

  • Police, job stress

  • Political advertising

  • Pollution

  • Polygraphs

  • Poverty

  • Prehistoric animals

  • Prehistoric painting

  • Premature infants

  • Primates

  • Prisons

  • Product safety

  • Psychiatric drugs

  • Quit-smoking programs

  • Radiation therapy

  • Radio astronomy

  • Rain forests

  • Rare animals

  • Recovering addicts

  • Renewable resources

  • Rescue work

  • Robots

  • Satellites

  • Savant syndrome

  • Scams

  • Schizophrenia

  • Scientific fraud

  • Sea farming

  • Seafood contamination

  • Self-defense

  • Serotonin

  • Sick-building syndrome

  • Sled dog racing

  • Sleep, research

  • Smuggling

  • Soil erosion

  • Solar power

  • Space exploration

  • Spam & junk e-mail

  • Speech disorders

  • Sports injuries

  • Stalking

  • Steroids

  • Suicide

  • Sunken treasure

  • Survival skills

  • Taxes

  • Teenage crime

  • Terrorism

  • Tornadoes

  • Toxic wastes

  • Urban homesteading

  • Victims of crime

  • Volcanoes

  • Water purification

  • Weather forecasting

  • Wildlife rescue

  • Wind power

  • Women’s rights

  • X-rays

  • Year-round education

  • Zoological parks

Personalities

This list can be as long as your imagination.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • King Kamehameha
  • Queen Liliuokalani
  • King David Kalakaua
  • Queen Kaahumanu
  • Evita Peron
  • Princess Diana
  • Anne Frank
  • Aretha Franklin
  • José Carreras
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Rachel Carson
  • Malcolm X
  • Chief Seattle
  • Yo-Yo Ma
  • H.H. Dalai Lama
  • Toni Morrison
  • Zora Neale Huston
  • Albert Schweitzer
  • Antonio Vivaldi
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Edward James Olmos
  • Joan of Arc
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Charles Lindbergh
  • Sacagawea
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Amy Tan
  • Pelé
  • Sojourner Truth
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Lee Iaccocca
  • Mahatma Gandhi
  • Amelia Earhart
  • Cesar Chavez
  • Mother Teresa
  • Akio Morita
  • Socrates
  • Sam Houston
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Albert Einstein
  • Mikhail Baryshnikov
  • Tecumseh

Situations/How-To's

  • good remedies for bad colds
  • coping with depression
  • get a good night’s sleep
  • prevent cancer
  • anorexia nervosa
  • first aid for choking victims
  • finding a creative hobby
  • ingredients for a happy marriage
  • win friends
  • finding fulfillment through volunteer work
  • appreciate a work of art
  • overcoming shyness
  • best restaurants in town
  • best carnivals–from New Orleans to Rio
  • touring Europe on a bicycle
  • hang-gliding
  • unsung but fabulous movies
  • walking trips in Great Britain and Ireland
  • get a good job
  • get a raise
  • earn $1,000 a month in your spare time
  • fine art of haggling at a flea market
  • giving birth the Lamaze way
  • surviving a tornado
  • enduring boot camp in the military
  • confronting a mugger
  • shooting the rapids of a wild river
  • immigrating to the United States
  • possibility of life on other planets
  • homemade herbal remedies of Native Americans
  • incredible intelligence of bees
  • search for Atlantis
  • last Tsar of Russia
  • famous people who accurately predicted the date of their death
  • marriage customs and traditions for couples in India
  • advantages of home fitness equipment over membership in a spa or gym
  • survival if stranded in the wilderness
  • history of surfing
  • growing a flower garden
  • calligraphy–a relaxing, inexpensive hobby
  • make one of Spain's favorite dishes
  • make and use dandelion oil to relieve physical ailments
  • stress and joys of working in a high-volume restaurant
  • raining for and competing in bicycle races
  • surviving a triple-trauma car accident
  • keep a car in good running condition
  • travel abroad on limited means
  • collecting sports cards as a financial investment
  • rock collecting as a hobby
  • value of yoga
  • explanation of cerebral palsy
  • rock climbing as a safe sport
  • demonstration of Korean Taekwondo karate
  • how to buy a used car
  • using a mountain bike for transportation and exercise
  • basics of the water sport called windsurfing
  • avoid athletic injuries
  • avoid food poisoning
  • avoid home burglary
  • avoid repetitive stress
  • child-proof a home
  • choose healthy snacks
  • choose low-fat alternative foods
  • choose the best computer for your needs and budget
  • exercise properly
  • identify poisonous insects
  • identify native plants
  • open a coconut
  • perform the Heimlich maneuver