We have put together a selection of “Talking Topics” for you to use on your segment to engage with your listeners.
1. What piece of information do you have that you think everyone should know? What difference has it made to you by knowing it?
2. Do you have a name for someone based on something that they do or look like? For example, Mr Fussy, or Miss Messy.
3. Are you old before your time? What are the stories and experiences that make you believe that?
4. Proposals: have you done it in an unusual place or romantic way? Stories of the time the other person said ‘no’.
5. Have you ever changed your name, or used a pseudonym? Why did you do it and were you ever caught out by someone … or simply forgot who you were supposed to be!
6. Stories about big stars with no pretensions? An example of the ‘bigger the star the more normal their behaviour’.
7. The Beatles or the Stones? Which is best? Did you ever meet either band? Where are your allegiances?
8. What do regret to this day you let the other person have when you split up at the end of a relationship? What did they take that you think you should have had? What did you take of theirs that you should not have taken? CDs, furniture?
9. Rename famous films, with famous people (for example ‘Barry White and the 7 Dwarves’, ‘What’s Eating Gilbert O’Sullivan’, ‘A Donna Summer Night’s Dream’, ‘Taxi Minnie Driver’…)
10. You’re going to be on a TV quiz show. If you had to name your absolute specialist subject, what would it be? How come you’re such an expert?
11. Strange orders or requests that you’ve been given. Did you comply? Did you ask questions or do it unquestioningly?
12. Fishermen: what is the best bait? Why? Where’s best to fish around here? What can you catch? Do you throw it back or eat it?
13. Have you ever had to persuade a large group of people to do something unusual?
14. Have you ever met someone with your name? Were they anything like you? What did you talk about?
15. Where can I get the very best cup of coffee? Is it the posh coffee shop or the cheap ‘transport café’?
16. Have you ever been banned from somewhere perhaps because of what you were wearing? Or have you ever banned yourself from somewhere because the last time you did something so embarrassing you dare not show your face again?
17. Is there something you wish you’d never thrown away? What are the circumstances that are behind the fact that it no longer belongs to you?
18. My nephew is doing work experience for a month with a company that is offering him petty cash for lunches. Is it OK to take lunch from home, and keep the money?
19. Is there a slot, pipe, box or wire in your home (under the sink or under the stairs perhaps) that you’ve no idea why it’s there?
20. What are you fastidious about? Something that you just need to have done in a certain way.
21. If you had a remote control for your life, what would unpleasant event would you fast-forward past? Or what great event would you put on pause to get more out of?
22. What film would you love to see turned into a stage musical? Why? And who would be in the starring role? What scenes would they have to rework to get it on stage and how would the producers do that?
23. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give on how to bring up children? Parents and non parents can offer advice!
24. Other people’s toast crumbs in the jam: What are the small things that affect your mood for the rest of the day? (Children standing in shopping trolleys, cheeses sandwiches made with grated cheese that falls out).
25. What have you spoken to your children about and then suddenly realised the generation gap? My sister’s 10-year-old lad found a 7-inch single and didn’t know what it was!
26. How do you make the perfect scrambled egg so it’s not too hard, fluffy or watery? Is it down to the kind of eggs, amount of butter or whisking? Is a microwave or saucepan best?
27. If you could get rid of any type of insect, what would it be and why? What’s the story behind your decision?
28. Who is your favourite fictional detective and why? How were you introduced to them? To what lengths have you gone to show your love of the character?
29. “Cermanichal digger”, “par cark” – what words did you or your children have trouble saying as a child?
30. What’s happened to you against astronomical odds? Strange stories that beat the odds, that most people don’t believe.
31. Is it OK to use the contacts on an e-mail sent to me, on an e-mail sent from me … even if the people do not know each other?
32. Quick inconsequential phone-vote: when drinking from a bottle do you sip or glug? What about the ‘wash-back’? If someone else offers you a swig from their bottle, do you wipe the neck before or after you use it – or both?
33. Have you ever been offered a bribe or inducement? Maybe a consideration for favours rendered. Maybe at work? When is a bribe a barter?
34. Do you know someone who constantly mispronounces a word: ‘pyoo-jo’ rather than ‘per-jo’ for example. Everyone around them pronounces it correctly, why haven’t they cottoned on?! Pronunciations: scone or scone? Bouquet or bouquet?
35. Extraordinary tales of bad luck. Are you one of the unluckiest people that you know? Why?
36. Have you ever been out with someone who never in your wildest dreams would you have thought you would? OK perhaps it didn’t last long, but for a few short weeks they were the person all your friends were amazed about. Perhaps they were famous, super-rich, a model…
37. What’s the most money you have earned in the shortest possible time? What’s your biggest waste of money?
38. Have you ever been lied to by someone official or in uniform and then caught them out?
39. What annoying thing do you put up with about your other half, but put up with because you love them so much?
40. If you could have stopped aging at any point in your life up until now, how old would you want to remain. Why?
We have put together a selection of “Talking Topics” for you to use on your segment to engage with your listeners.
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