Podcasting in West Palm Beach
Bestselling author and political insider Ann Bracken, author of How to Break Into the White House, talks us through her first time podcasting in West Palm Beach!
By Ann Bracken
I’ve never done a podcast before! After writing a small book ‘How to Break into the White House,’ Voyage Media in Los Angeles asked me to do a podcast of my book, and I couldn’t say YES fast enough. When it was suggested I do my own podcast, I was aghast- my voice makes people cover their ears. But I was assured the studio would make me listenable. I was sceptical! I was so flattered that Voyage Media wanted to make an 8-episode podcast of my small book about working in the George HW Bush White House that I was determined to do the very best I could.
Recording studios in the U.S. would be easier than recording in London, so I thought I would choose a place in the U.S. that I’d always wanted to visit and potentially get a pied-à-terre in America since my husband’s recent death, so West Palm Beach- here I come.
I had been to Florida a few times for vacation, but seemed to always stay in the Ritz-Carlton (Naples, Biscayne Bay, and Boca Raton). Being in the luxury of the fabulous hotel didn’t encourage me to explore the area. So my memories of Florida were strictly of being pampered in different Florida locales. The massages, rooms, spas and beaches all ran into each other as they were basically the same experience. Wonderful and probably unique to the area, but I didn’t notice, as I never left the hotel grounds. The only difference was in Biscane Bay, where my son and I went to ‘swim with the dolphins.’ I remember this well because I had an actual ‘hook’ protruding from my toe after a recent foot surgery. I tried to get out of it, but claiming that I would, in fact, ‘hook’ the dolphin, but he wouldn’t let me off that easily, and the dolphin did indeed remain unscathed after I grabbed his or her fin for a thrilling ride around the pool. I did get strange looks during our stay as I had to wear a surgical open-toe shoe that displayed my ‘hook’ prominently. I knew one locale (Naples) was on the West side of the state and the other two (Biscayne Bay and Boca Raton) on the East side. Still, since I didn’t venture into the oceans, I couldn’t tell the difference between the Atlantic and the ‘Gulf of America’ or ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Although I gather the water is a tad warmer on the West side of the state, we were there during New Year’s, so the water wasn’t warm at all! In fact, it was so cold in Naples that while playing tennis, the iguanas were falling out of the trees. Not dead, but a bluish colour from the cold. They eventually regained consciousness and scuttled off the court.
I did take my son on a Disney cruise when he was little, which started and ended in Orlando, with a stop in Key West for snorkelling. I don’t count that experience as a true Floridian one. I do remember the clientele on the Disney Cruise being very diverse, to say the least. (Probably the same as Disney World.) Most had children, of course, but some were adults who wore Mickey Mouse ears and were so obese that they were relegated to an electric scooter. They were having a literal ‘whale’ of a time, though they probably didn’t join the snorkelling in Key West. The buffets were extremely popular! I teased my young son and nephew that one of the Disney characters (Goofy or Mickey Mouse) would be hiding behind the shower curtain and jump out with a loud shout when we walked through the door. I shouldn’t have said that, as I was always asked to ‘check behind the shower curtain’ before they dared to enter the cabin.
Back to the present day, there are many so-called ‘snow birds’ from the Midwest of America that venture to places like Sarasota, Naples and Vero Beach on the West coast of Florida during the harsh winters up North. Even the caretaker of my Northern Michigan home spends the winter on Sanibel Island. I need to check how much I am paying him.
On the East Coast, many financiers from Wall Street came to the Palm Beach area during COVID and never left. West Palm Beach used to be called the ‘Wall Street of the South,’ but with so many New Yorkers migrating because of the threat of the new socialist mayor of NYC, Mandami, it is now being called America’s ‘Wall Street’ Period. Everyone voted for Trump in the Palm Beach area, but HATES him visiting Mar-a-Lago, as no one can move from their residences. The Presidential motorcade disrupts all traffic with one or two of the three bridges to the island permanently closed when he’s in town. The only way to get around during his visits is to walk. This upsets the locals.
I chose to do my podcast in the West Palm Beach area because, as I said, my husband recently passed away, and I was looking for a new place in America to begin anew. I am both a British/American citizen, and the new Labour tax regime in London is a big factor in my decision to leave London for most of the year. I love London and have lived here for 27 years, but I felt a change would be good for me, and I would keep the London house, so I would always be able to return. West Palm Beach seemed a good place to start since my son (who I would love to join me eventually) works in wealth management. Voyage Media found a fabulous studio in downtown for the podcast, only a short walk from my hotel.
My adventure started at Heathrow, where an electric car exploded in the garage of Terminal 3; I was flying out of Terminal 2. Needless to say, the whole airport was in chaos and my plucky driver parked in the terminal 5 garage and escorted me and my large suitcase to the underground, packed jammed with fellow displaced travellers and finally to the United Airlines desk in terminal 2. I then had to race through the entire building to get to the gate, flying to Newark, which was the last gate in the whole complex. I barely made it.
The trip back was no fun either, as the Newark flight was to depart for London at 10 30 pm, but with the U.S. government shut down at the time, several key airport employees decided to skip work. We lifted off at 2 30 am.
What I didn’t expect in South Florida was the humidity and heat, even in late autumn. I spent the first two weeks of October in the city, and even a 15-minute walk to the studio left me sweating profusely, and this was after my sweaty workout. I don’t really sweat that much to begin with! Every building had the air conditioning pumped up to full blast, so after changing my shirt, I had to do hours of podcasting in my blazer to stay warm. I gather November to May, the weather is amazing.
Every morning, I would rise by 4 am (which I’m not proud of), and since the coffee shop didn’t open until 6:30 am, and worse yet, breakfast wasn’t until 7 am, I was at a loss. I filled my time with going to the gym, which was, luckily, open 24 hours a day! The wonderful thing about being up so early was that I made friends with the Hilton staff. I was the first in line for coffee at 6:30 am (sometimes too early) and the first for breakfast at 7 am. I didn’t need a menu, as every server knew my order. One lovely waitress bought my book on Amazon, brought it to breakfast for me to sign and said all the staff wanted to read it when she was done. So sweet! She even told me she bought the last copy available on the American Amazon site, which I immediately relayed to my publisher. Amazon is busy restocking at the moment! The same happened at dinner. I had my Coke Zero waiting for me when I arrived and vacillated between three entrees, salmon, chicken and snapper, but whatever the server guessed that I wanted that evening, I always said ‘exactly.’ Last night, the kind server gave me two Coke Zeros on the house. I was so touched. He said they would all miss me as I knew everyone by name, which evidently never happened in such a big, anonymous Hilton hotel near the airport.
One morning, I was so excited for my coffee that I didn’t realise the shop hadn’t opened yet and walked full force into the plate glass door! This wasn’t a gentle stroll either; I bound confidently into the glass wall. Luckily, the door held my force and stayed intact, but my nose didn’t. Blood started pouring out of my left nostril and the force of the hit reverberated through my head. Sadly, all the employees at the coffee shop and the nearby breakfast restaurant witnessed or heard the entire incident. I laughed it off, and they kindly gave me tissues to mop up my nose, but I was left swollen and bruised for the rest of my stay. The kind manager checked on me every morning at breakfast (I pretended it was ‘tis but a scratch- but it was actually a bit more than that.) Luckily, it didn’t affect my voice, so the podcast went on as planned, although it hurt to laugh, which I did on a regular basis.
On my way to and from the studio, which was located on the main downtown street called ‘Clematis’, I met many locals who were ‘mentally confused’ and hung out in the downtown centre. They mostly seem harmless, with one dusky man approaching me mid-morning, offering a plant without a pot, soil dripping from his fingers. I smiled but crossed the street. Maybe that’s a traditional greeting (like a lei in Hawaii) in the Sunshine State! At the railway crossing, a seemingly nice-looking woman approached me with a shopping bag, but instead of asking for directions to the grocery store, she yelled some unmentionables in my face and began to flap the plastic bag at me. Luckily, there was no train as I quickly jogged across the tracks.
Since I don’t drink or take drugs, I have to have one naughty habit- for me, it’s the occasional sneaky puff of a Marlboro light. Usually this takes place near an open window or on a balcony in London or France, but at the West Palm Beach Hilton, smoking is verboten, and I was on the 12th floor with sealed windows! Disaster! I was far from delighted to have to take my secret stash all the way down 12 floors, through the buzzing lobby filled with Conventioneers and airline staff, out the front door, and to the right, all the way to the side of the building with the trash cans. There I met other dubious smokers being naughty just like me...some of whom asked me for a light. I think some were homeless who made the trash heap their bed as well. A very colourful group to say the least! When I asked one of my new buddies where I could actually ‘buy’ some cigarettes, I was met with a quizzical look, but I was finally answered, ' at the gas station on the wrong side of town.’ I had to be very conservative with my puffs. Oddly, there was a marijuana or ‘weed’ shop on almost every block. When I stuck my head in to ask if they sold Marlboro lights, I was told no, but there were 40 varieties of different types of fabulous marijuana. I decided not to indulge.
Back to the podcast. We worked all day, Monday to Friday, where I talked with my fabulous producer in Los Angeles via Zoom from an ‘all-equipped’ recording studio in the centre of West Palm Beach. Whole Story Studio was a warm and comfortable space. I recounted stories from my White House days that corresponded to my book and answered questions to try to get enough content to make it into a ‘riveting’ podcast. The incredible producer is now talking with ‘guests’ (mostly people who worked with me in the White House) to add their two cents about the impact, if any, I had on the George HW Bush administration. Mainly, I was invisible because I was the ‘lowest man on the totem pole,’ but because I did every job, I had wonderful experiences with amazing, brilliant people. I played tennis and went running with the President, which gave me access that very few people had. It was a 24/7 job, but an absolute joy.
Needless to say, this was my first time talking for hours into a microphone and to say I was nervous was a huge understatement. The audio engineer/studio manager was a gem of a young lady named Julie Walthers, and with her aide de camp, Gabriel Nedds, I was immediately put at ease. They both hail from Michigan, so we were three Midwesterners in Southern Florida. She even provided me with a Diet Coke and fruit to keep me going during the hours of talking; to keep my voice from seizing up completely and give me some much-needed energy.
Day one, I had a few stops and starts, but everyone was so kind that by day two, I felt almost confident.
The walk through downtown West Palm Beach was an experience in itself. I wasn’t used to the weather, even in October, and arrived at the studio ringing wet and worse for wear. I got smart and brought a change of clothes the next day. On Thursday, there was a horrific thunderstorm (which is usual in Southern Florida, I learned), so the kind Julie drove me back to my hotel in a torrential downpour. What service! The weather seemed to become cooler as the week wore on, and the length of our sessions did too. When I was finally finished late Friday, I ended up in tears as I tried to sum up the purpose of my book: ‘giving hope to young people no matter where they come from- just work hard, have enthusiasm and be willing to do whatever is asked of you’… I couldn’t finish, as tears were rolled down my face. My producer said she had achieved a ‘Barbara Walters’ moment’, who always tried to get her ‘Interviewees’ to cry!
While I was in the area, I also took a tour with a fabulous driver around all of Palm Beach County and looked at a few apartments and houses in the area with the super impressive Carolina Buia Barefoot, Palm Beach realtor. She even took me to lunch at the club in her gated community in Palm Beach Gardens. When my new friend was showing me the ‘card room’ with its ‘movie theatre- like’ area of drinks and candy dispensers for the card players, a club member approached me and complimented me on my ' long legs’ and bright pink dress. I was so touched that I almost made a real estate offer then and there. This is close to where Michael Jordan, Jack Nicholas and Venus and Serena live! The area is thriving with an exploding financial centre of all the people who left the East Coast. There might even be a possibility for my son who works in that sector. The island of Palm Beach is beautiful, and since Trump was in the Middle East at the time, singing the Israel/Gaza Peace Accords, his motorcade didn’t block roads. I also toured Jupiter Island, an equally lovely place where Burt Reynolds used to reside.
What I especially loved were the downtown apartments overlooking the Intracoastal, which is the water that separates the mainland from Palm Beach Island. With the financial sector booming, it has transformed into one of the world’s hottest financial hubs. It is also number one in the U.S. for attracting the young and wealthy.
My one evening outing was with the podcast gang in a restaurant in the city centre called Il Bellagio. We were surrounded by a beautiful square where the main attraction was the ‘wishing tree’ beside a fountain, which started out multicoloured but changed during the evening and when we finally posed in front of it, it was a lovely shade of violet.
I found the weather was hit and miss, but this was mid-October. It started out stifling, with air conditioning on full blast in every establishment, but then the rain came and the clouds cooled things off considerably. By the time I left, I was comfortable wearing my winter ski jacket to the airport, but did get some strange looks as it wasn’t ever ski jacket weather in Florida.
When leaving Florida, donning my ski jacket, on the plane, people looked at me with envy as the A/C was turned to full blast. My late husband, who was a director of British Airways for 2 decades, said this was intentional. The ‘customers’ were frozen to ‘keep them quiet’ during the overnight flight. He always had a heavy jacket and a cashmere scarf wrapped around his neck, even when travelling to the Côte d’Azur, as do I.
Other than the financial holdings, the southern charm of the City Centre, fabulous restaurants, reefer shops, Parisian-type cafes, hotels, condos, beaches, music festivals, and every store imaginable, The Cleveland Clinic (top-notch hospital) and Vanderbilt University are building a new Business school in West Palm Beach.
The ‘How to Break into the White House’ podcast is in production now in LA, and I can only feel good about its success and the positive feeling I had visiting the wonderful area of Palm Beach County. I certainly took myself out of my ‘comfort zone.’ Even though I’m American and pay US taxes, I haven’t lived there for almost 3 decades and spend only a few weeks in Northern Michigan each summer. Because of my late husband’s British Airways connection, I haven’t flown on another airline either. For this trip, I took United Airlines - A big step forward. I’m hoping to take my son back for a look soon. I am now making an audiobook of ‘How to Break into the White House’ as an excuse to work with Whole Story Studio again
Follow @annieinthewhitehouse
@blowoutmagazine
