The main idea of the article is that people need to listen more and talk less. The article talks about how much closer of a population we could be if we just do a little more listening to others. It talks about the major difference between African story telling and American story telling is that American stories are more linear and are structured from beginning to end; while African stories are often complex, having more than a couple stories going on simultaneously.

The relevance of this article to the one about the people in the parlor is expressed through the need for better communication. The people in the parlor were just arguing and constantly inserting their opinion without listening to anyone else's and also without any prior knowledge of the topic at hand. Instead of hearing each other out, it was more important to prove each other wrong. And its relevance to chapter 9 in the Wadsworth book is stated when the article says the information is not the same as knowledge, but rather knowledge is the application of knowledge. We should apply knowledge to our projects and make sure we communicate our thoughts thoroughly.