This Denver man just traveled to every U.S. county. Here's what he learned

Flashback: Zimny-Schmitt's wanderlust was set in motion in 2016, when he was "shaken" by the results of the presidential election and "struggled to comprehend what could have provoked such a profound political shift," he wrote in a story on Medium.

• He spent the next several years crisscrossing America, including Alaska and Hawaii, in search of answers.

Zoom in: Last November, when he finally finished his travel feat on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Alabama — and the county-by-county map he'd printed off years earlier was completely colored in with an orange highlighter — he says he gained clarity.

• Political divides are growing deeper as more people retreat into their "comfortable cocoons" instead of connecting with people outside of them, he wrote.

The bottom line: "The most important thing is to never pass up an opportunity to have a genuine, heartfelt interaction with someone who you feel you might not have anything in common with," he told CPR this month.

• "If we're going to heal a lot of the divides in our country, it's going to take all of us not being afraid to get out of our comfort zones, to humanize other people and understand where their perspectives are coming from," he said.