The Obscure-But-Relevant Test
The best Info topics sit in a sweet spot: unfamiliar enough to teach the audience something new, but connected enough to their lives that they care. You'll learn to evaluate topics against this test before writing a single word.
Too Obscure vs. Too Common
A topic like 'the mating rituals of a deep-sea fish no one has heard of' risks feeling irrelevant no matter how well delivered, because the audience can't find a foothold. A topic like 'the history of pizza' is too familiar — most listeners already know the broad strokes, so there's little left to teach.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Good Info topics often take something the audience thinks they understand and reveal a surprising layer underneath, or take something totally unfamiliar and tie it tightly to a universal experience like health, money, or daily life. The test is simple: can you finish the sentence 'You think you know X, but actually...' or 'You've never heard of X, but it affects you because...'
The Longevity Test
Beyond obscure-but-relevant, top competitors ask whether a topic will still feel fresh after 20-30 rounds of practice and competition across a season — topics tied to a fleeting news cycle can go stale or feel dated by late-season tournaments, while topics tied to durable human mechanisms (psychology, biology, infrastructure) tend to hold up.
A speaker is choosing between 'The Placebo Effect,' 'The History of the Fork,' and 'Marine Cloud Brightening.'
The placebo effect is well-known in name but rich in surprising mechanism — passes the test. The fork's history is mildly interesting but low-stakes and doesn't connect to the audience's life today. Marine cloud brightening is obscure, but ties directly to climate change, something everyone already cares about — also passes. The speaker chooses marine cloud brightening because it's more novel while still clearing the relevance bar.
1. What is the risk of a topic that is too obscure?
2. What is the risk of a topic that is too common?
3. True or False?
"A strong Info topic often reveals a surprising layer beneath something the audience thinks they already understand."
4. Why might a topic tied to a fleeting current news event be risky for a full season?
Answer all 4 to check.
Choose a topic that is either surprisingly relevant or relevantly surprising — never both familiar and shallow.