Mostly Banter: Telling the Stories of Our Community

One Year of Connecting Beverly Hills Through Personal and Shared Experiences

By Leah Cohen | Photos courtesy Colby Gilardian

In July of 2023, the Mostly Banter podcast released its first episode from the back of The Beverly Hills Hotel. Nearly a year later, the podcast boasts over 30 episodes, each featuring a different figure within the community, allowing guests to share their personal stories with listeners.

For host Michael Moline and producer Colby Gilardian, a mutual love for their city and some luck brought the unlikely duo together. Although in different generations, both grew up in Beverly Hills, and neither plans to leave soon. Moline works in personal property and is active in the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills. Moline volunteered for a career day at Beverly Hills High School where he was connected with his future producer and 2024 graduate, Gilardian. Throughout his time at the high school, Gilardian was heavily involved with the school’s news channel, KBEV, even helping to develop a state-of-the-art podcast studio. The studio is now home to 80 different student-run shows, including Mostly Banter.

Colby Gilardian and Michael Moline in the KBEV studio.

Each Friday, Moline, Gilardian, and their guest get together in the KBEV podcast studio to record. While Beverly Hills is home to some of the world’s biggest names, the duo has purposely kept the guest list to local business owners, members of the city staff, developers, and similar figures.

“It’s all about raising community awareness and telling individual stories of the people within it,” Moline said. While guests are often invited on because of their role or connection to Beverly Hills, it’s not uncommon for conversations to veer into unexpected topics. In a February episode, Dr. Michael Bregy, the Superintendent of Beverly Hills Unified School District, shared that he is a former gymnast and began his professional career as a flight attendant. In November, Brian Phelps, former co- host of long-time KLOS show, the “Mark and Brian Show,” shared how he found his way to working in Los Angeles after working on farms and factories in his small Illinois hometown. It’s conversations like these in which guests open up and share more personal, unexpected stories that deepen connections with listeners and locals.

Having reached 100,000 total episode listens within the first year, the Mostly Banter duo is looking to double that number and then some. Over the next 12 months, Moline and Gilardian plan to begin building a following on social media and delve even further into community involvement through promotion of local businesses, restaurants, and more. While the two have goals for the future of Mostly Banter, they don’t plan on losing sight of their initial vision.

"It's always been about, wow, that's another individual that gets to hear this story, that gets to hear about this person's life," Gilardian said. "It's inspired people." To Moline and Gilardian, the podcast was and will never be about the number of listens or follows, but rather, to simply engage, support and celebrate the Beverly Hills community.