( ENSPIRE News ) Adrienne Bankert Releases New Book
ENSPIRE Contributor: Gabrielle Maya
Full-rounded reporter, Adrienne Bankert is an award-winning national news anchor and host of “Morning in America” on NewsNation. She worked with ABC News for five years and has won two Emmy Awards for her work on “Good Morning America”, and for reporting for “World News Tonight with David Muir” and “Nightline”. Assigned in Tokyo, Prague, and Paris for the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
Bankert covered major headlines examples including the Parkland High School shooting tragedy and breaking news of a youth soccer team trapped in a Thailand cave. Her heartwarming moments and conversations with Kobe Bryant, Lady Gaga, and Viola Davis, to name a few celebrities. She even sang with country music legend Garth Brooks.
Another accomplishment was through “Breaking Bread,” an immigration-related series on “Morning in America” fronted by Adrienne. This segment inspired new videos on the subject, created from an invitation from Oprah’s chef, Art Smith, to a dinner for illegal immigrants where they shared their experiences. In addition to such acts of kindness, Adrienne has a new book that shares the power of kindness and how it can be muscle memory and be used to create safe spaces with teams, friends, and even strangers.
Adrienne Bankert shares with ENSPIRE insight on her new book release, her experience with the “Breaking Bread” segment, her interest in journalism, and best interview practices.
What was going on in your life and/or career that you decided to write your book, Your Hidden Superpower: The Kindness That Makes You Unbeatable at Work and Connects You with Anyone, and what was the overall goal for your readers?
I was working as a national correspondent for ABC News, traveling around the world, interviewing the biggest names in the world, but still feeling unfulfilled. Not because I didn’t enjoy my job, but because I knew there was more. I had been wanting to write a book, and when I talked to my coach about it, he said, “You know what you should write your book on? Kindness.” Writing it ended up being a great outlet for me, not just to highlight what is truly everyone’s superpower but also to ask and answer the questions that we all have about how to stay steady when life gets crazy, how to be yourself, how to find out what your sweet spot in life is, how to connect with people and how to develop a sixth sense. Writing this book is among the most rewarding projects I’ve ever completed.
Describe your time and what you’ve learned on “Breaking Bread.” What has this immigration-related series taught you about yourself and others and the explorations of tradition, food, and experiences? How will this impact the audience’s point of view?
It was an idea I came up with to sit down and have conversations with people whose stories don’t always intimately get broadcast or that surround topics that are hard to digest (no pun intended). We all tend to relax more when we sit down to a meal with someone—and I hoped that people who sat down with us would feel like they could breathe and share in a way that would be more like speaking to friends around the dinner table.
Have you always been interested in journalism and news coverage? How did you begin your career path, and what were some challenges you had to face?
My first TV internship wasn’t until I was a senior in college, and my first jobs were as a talk show host, first in college at USC and then for a children’s television program aired on PBS. I didn’t know what miracle would allow me to get into the news business, but after praying hard, I received a job as a traffic anchor—a regular member of the morning news team at one of the biggest stations in the country, KCRA in Sacramento. It was the number one station, and the job had been offered to multiple people before me. After that success, I just knew that even if things didn’t look good, I would still get to exactly where and what I was meant for!
What are some methods you use to help you report on all kinds of events and people?
I would say the key is treating every person I interview as a neighbor, friend or genius. If you treat people like this, they’ll open up and share with you.
You have interacted with many celebrities, such as Viola Davis, Kobe Bryant, and Lady Gaga. What are some things that you’ve learned as a news anchor when conversing with such talent as compared to how television viewers idolize them on screen?
When I sit down with a celebrity, I treat them like they are the smartest person in the room—while at the same time treating them like they put their pants on the same one-leg-at-a-time way as I did this morning.
You can buy Your Hidden Superpower: The Kindness That Makes You Unbeatable at Work and Connects You with Anyone by ordering here.“Morning in America” airs on NewsNation starting at 5 a.m. (CST). You can find out where to watch at www.joinNN.com. Click below to view a snippett of “Breaking Bread”.
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