NSDA Topics Now: LD De-extinction and PF on the TPNW

The National Speech & Debate Association topics page, checked 11 November 2026, lists four announced resolutions for the current season and a separate set of wordings that have not been voted through yet.

What is the topic right now

• Lincoln-Douglas, November/December 2026: “Resolved: De-extinction is unethical.”
• Public Forum, November/December 2026: “Resolved: European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
• Policy, 2026-2027: “Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.”
• Big Questions, 2026-2027: “Resolved: Technological progress has surpassed humanity’s ability to use it ethically.”

NSDA also publishes the vote on that page. For November/December LD, 636 coaches and 3,167 students voted, and the winning resolution received 54% of the coach vote and 57% of the student vote. For November/December PF, 629 coaches and 3,281 students voted, and the winning resolution received 57% of the coach vote and 44% of the student vote. Those figures are NSDA’s, not a poll Prilo ran.

What is not the topic yet

January/February LD and January PF each have two public ballot options. LD’s pair is artificial intelligence for offensive military operations, and a substantial increase in United States renewable-energy subsidies. PF’s pair is classifying gig workers as employees, and whether the benefits of big box retailers outweigh the harms. NSDA announces the winners on December 1, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. CT. Until that clock time, neither wording is the topic. February PF is announced January 1. March/April LD and March PF are announced February 1.

Policy’s 2027-2028 topic is also unfinished. NSDA says the final two topic areas go on a second ballot in November and December. Do not brief a 2027-2028 winner.

How to brief the LD topic without inventing a plan

“De-extinction is unethical” does not name a government, a species, or a lab technique. The affirmative has to defend the sentence as written. A contention that only works for one extinct animal is an example, not the resolution. Write the value and the criterion so they still apply when the negative swaps the example. The ballot option that lost, vesting ecosystems with legal rights, is a different debate. Leave it out of the November/December file.

How to brief the PF topic without widening the actor

The actor is European members of NATO. The action is ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Arguments about the United States joining that treaty, or about a European country that is not in NATO, answer a different resolution. Read the treaty and the alliance’s public documents, then cut cards that clash on ratification, not on a generic “nuclear weapons bad or good” claim.

The longer briefs, the release table, and the December 1 ballot options are on the NSDA topics page. Evidence cutting and case structure sit in the card-cutting guide and the case-writing guide.