Confessions of a Human Nerve Ending

Talk delivered at Ignite-NM #14 September 11th, 2013                 A friend sent an e-mail about putting in a pitch for this event entitled, "Ignite-New Mexico."   After letting it sit in my in-box for a while, I thought, "What if I did a talk about talks?"  Seems to me that talks are a relatively recent thing, but the question I have is why.   Are we talking more?   For example, we have Ted Talks, Bioneers, BIL, South by Southwest, Poetry Slam, Story Slam, the Moth, and others.   We are talking more, but why?                 I asked a friend and he responded, "People need intellectual stimulation and they used to get it by reading.  Nobody reads anymore."                 Perhaps.  We cert...