“One researcher the book cites clocks inner speech at an average pace of 4,000 words per minute — 10 times faster than verbal speech. And it’s often more condensed — we don’t have to use full sentences to talk to ourselves, because we know what we mean.” The Atlantic’s Julie Beck talks to a researcher who has been studying our “inner speech” to reveal why we talk to ourselves: The Running Conversation in Your Head. (I used to be bothered by the voices in my head, but then I set them all free on social media.)