A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflecting on America 250 with Lloyd Owen Banwart

The Whole Again Podcast: Mindfulness and Resilience through Kinstugi Wisdom airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Pause Breathe Reflect Microdose Meditations, Growth Mindset and Mindfulness Tips, to help us transform our scars into healing and resilience.

And between May and October, I'm sharing a new series I'm calling: A Perfectly Imperfect Union. It's about connecting with every day folks as they reflect on America at 250. Conversations will air every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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What would it take to just sit down with someone you disagree with and share a meal?

That's the quiet but powerful question at the heart of this conversation with Lloyd Owen Banwart, a Midwestern farm kid turned humanitarian worker, now living in his beloved Minnesota and building a life that holds two very different Americas at once.

Lloyd has spent 20 years in international development, traveled to over 40 countries, and still says his favorite place on the planet is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota — thousands of lakes, no motors, and one of the quietest places on earth.

He believes America's greatest promise is simple: every day, we get to try to be a little better than we were the day before. But he also knows that the promise is fragile.

As a husband to a wife with immigrant parents, a father of boys of color, and someone who received a message that ICE was outside his children's school, Lloyd has lived the gap between what America says it is and what some families experience every single day. He holds that tension with honesty, with grace, and without letting go of hope.

His birthday wish for America? Just the willingness to extend a little grace to each other and then show up in the same room long enough to remember who we're actually talking to.

Lloyd's question for you and our next guest, Kyle, is: When was the last time a real conversation changed your mind or your perspective on something?

You can connect with Lloyd over on LinkedIn, and as his picture says: Do Something Great!

Share your thoughts in the comments and share this episode with someone you love.

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