What Transportation-Related Topic Could You Give A Ten Minute TED Talk About?

Have you participated in any of those PowerPoint parties that have been popping up in the last couple of years? You know, where a group of friends put together a presentation about some silly topic or another that they know a lot about, or at least are passionate about, and show that thing they've researched to the gathered? They can be a lot of fun, and I thought it would be a cool idea to put together one for the Jalops. 

I really like to talk about weird transportation-related people and events, and some of my blogs are derived from PowerPoint party presentations I've given in the past. These parties are like mini TED Talk events, but should be taken a whole lot less seriously. If I had ten minutes to talk about something weird and fun, I could probably spend my time chatting about the downfall of Studebaker, Porsche's history in IndyCar, the first car to go 100 miles per hour, or how Henry Ford ate weeds.

Are you a gabber? Do you have a brain full of car knowledge? What's a weird fun piece of automotive information that you could dump on a crowd of unsuspecting intellectuals for ten minutes or so? That's your TED Talk PowerPoint party topic for today, and you should sound off in the comments about what weird topic you'd cover. 

The history of the automobile is wide and far-reaching, but the history of transportation is even more varied. There are so many incredible topics you could cover with your ten minutes. Perhaps you could give your TED Talk about the serial killer that was indirectly responsible for powered flight, how Wheel of Fortune kicked off the racing career of McLaren CEO Zak Brown, or the wild Porsche 959 limousine that Benihana founder Rocky Aoki had built. 

There are thousands of topics to choose from, so make sure you pick something interesting and insightful. We'd all like to leave at the end of the party knowing a little more than we did when we arrived. Teach a few things, learn a few things, share your stories, that's the name of the game. 

And before you go getting all cynical about it, I'm definitely not using this post as an opportunity to mine for topics for future blogs, so get that out of your head. Just drop your fun stories of transportation history in the comments below and we'll have a fun time with it.