Up + Adam with Adam Montiel

On this episode of Up+Adam, Adam Montiel sits down with Andrea Gunning, the voice behind the hit true crime podcast Betrayal Weekly. From fake cancer scams to shocking double lives, Andrea isn’t just telling wild stories, she’s exploring what happens when trust breaks so badly, it redefines reality.

A Best Crime Podcast Winner, she will dig into some of the most jaw-dropping cases from the show, how betrayal hits differently than tr...

Adam will be leading a live workshop on The Art of the Interview at this year’s Central Coast Writers Conference, happening September 26–27, 2025 at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. For details and registration, visit cuesta.edu/writers-conference

• Official Website: adammontiel.com
• Apple Podcasts: Up+Adam on Apple Podcasts
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Few restaurants capture the SLO CAL vibe like Sunsets at Pismo. For six years, Brian Appiano’s shiny silver Airstream on the Pismo Pier has been serving up tacos, fish and chips, and margaritas with one of the best views you’ll find anywhere. But now, because of a decades-old zoning technicality, the City of Pismo Beach has voted to phase out commercial food vendors on the pier, and Sunsets will close in October 2025.

In this conver...

On this episode of Up + Adam, we’re joined by Kai Beckstrand, the 18-year-old champion of NBC’s American Ninja Warrior Season 17. Known as the fastest ninja on the planet, Kai has broken records with his speed and precision, hitting buzzers and making history alongside his brother and father. But his story runs deeper than the highlight reel. Kai is also a certified EMT and firefighter, dedicating his life to running into danger wh...

What happens when true crime gets personal? When the mystery isn’t something you binge in your earbuds, but something you’re suddenly living inside? On this True Crime Tuesday, Adam sits down with award-winning journalist Maggie Robinson Katz, the host of the gripping new podcast Hands Tied, an original series from BBC Studios and iHeartPodcasts.

The show follows Lizz Melgar Rose, whose mother was found bound in a closet and whose f...

What happens when the man behind some of the biggest names in music, like Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Justin Bieber, starts asking the real questions of himself?

In this powerful episode of Up+Adam, Adam sits down with Lex Borrero, the visionary co-founder of NEON16 and host of the podcast You vs You. Together, they dive deep into the mindset behind meaningful success, the internal battles that continue even at the top, and why redefin...

We talk to Robin Coleman from the Woods Humane Society about our Pet of the Week

Today’s episode runs a little shorter than usual — Adam got rear-ended (he’s okay!), and he’s got to take care of the necessary things.

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• Official Website: adammontiel.com
• Apple Podcasts: Up+Adam on Apple Podcasts
• Spotify: Up+Adam on Spotify
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This morning on Up+Adam, we take it all the way back to when “indie” wasn’t a playlist category—it was a movement. Adam sits down with Chris DeVille, longtime music journalist and Managing Editor at Stereogum, to talk about his incredible new book, Such Great Heights.

From blog rock to Bon Iver, from Phoebe Bridgers to the almighty O.C. soundtrack, this is a nostalgic, clever, and heartfelt conversation about how indie rock didn’t j...

In this episode, Adam Montiel chats with Glam Ham (callsign: NW6S), the truth-seeking ham radio operator and content creator whose viral dive into the San Luis Obispo blackout during the Gifford Fire turned heads across the Central Coast and beyond. From decoding strange signals and fire maps to asking the questions most news outlets won’t, Glam Ham has built a following of nearly 100,000 (Used to have 300K until she got banana’d a...

What happens when a rockstar trades the stage for the archives? Bob Crawford, bassist for the Grammy-nominated Avett Brothers and now host of American History Hotline, joins Adam Montiel for a conversation that hits harder than any history class you’ve ever taken. From tales of Founding Fathers dying on the same day to asking if the Constitution can really stop a dictator, Bob’s new podcast is flipping the script on how we connect ...

This episode is served spicy, with a splash of community spirit. Adam welcomes Maegen Loring, General Manager of the Long Branch in Creston, and Lisa Miller, President of the Creston Women’s Club, to talk all about the Creston Bloody Mary Battle, a 21+ event that mixes local flavor, homemade Bloody Marys, live music, burritos, beer, wine, and even bovine bingo (yes, cow plop for a cause).

Recorded live from the Timbre LoBro Studios,...

Today we have a curve ball in Don from Los Osos called in as Adam was preparing the show OUT OF NOWHERE - So mix in a little adhd, and you got a Don from Loso Osos (IYKYK) flashback with Robin from Woods along for the ride as well 

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• Official Website: adammontiel.com
• Apple Podcasts: Up+Adam on Apple Podcasts
• Spotify: Up+Adam on Spotify
• iHeartRadio: Up+Adam on iHeartRadio
• YouTube Music: Up+Ad...

Today on Up+Adam, we sit down in the Timbre LoBro Studios with Shawn Sherman, owner of Golden Apple Cannabis Company, for a conversation that cuts through the clichés and digs into the real cannabis industry, past, present, and future. Shawn’s been in the game since before legalization, navigating one of California’s most overtaxed and overregulated markets while staying true to his mission: educate the consumer. We talk about why ...

In today’s episode of Up+Adam, comedy icon Colin Mochrie, whose lightning-fast improv on Whose Line Is It Anyway? has kept us laughing for decades, joins Adam for a conversation that’s as hilarious as it is heartfelt. We talk about his decades-long run on television, his two hit live tours (Asking for Trouble with Brad Sherwood, and HYPROV: Improv Under Hypnosis with Asad Mecci), and his new film Magnetosphere, a moving story about...

Today on Up+Adam, we meet two young entrepreneurs who are redefining what it means to “start early.” Fourth-grade best friends and baseball teammates Jackson Houser and Jackson Judge turned a simple school “mini mall” project into The Drip Bros, a real business making custom, team-colored “drip” necklaces that blend sports style with community spirit. Their first run sold out in 15 minutes, raised hundreds for charity, and set them...

Adam’s back from a long vacation and hitting the ground running with a Hollywood heavyweight, Lou Diamond Phillips. From La Bamba to Longmire, Lou’s career has been a masterclass in range, resilience, and reinvention. In this episode, Lou talks about stepping into the role of Brent in his new film ET TU, a darkly funny dramedy about love, betrayal, and the beautiful chaos of live theater. He opens up about imposter syndrome, the me...

Adam is on Vacation - Please excuse the scrappy editing - . Robin Coleman returns to the show after many weeks off after she lost her dog. We talk to Woods Humane each week, so if you love dogs, this will touch you. We love Robin, her work, and glad shes back.

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• Official Website: adammontiel.com
• Apple Podcasts: Up+Adam on Apple Podcasts
• Spotify: Up+Adam on Spotify
• iHeartRadio: Up+Adam on i...

Today on Up+Adam, Adam sits down with Emmy-nominated journalist and host of The Bright Side, Simone Boyce. From breaking news to breaking cycles, Simone opens up about her transition from the hard edges of national news to the warmer, deeper spaces of cultural storytelling and soul-level joy.

They get into it all. What it's like leaving legacy media for something more personal. How motherhood rewired her approach to journalism. And ...

What’s the deal with jam bands?

 Are they cults? Are they concerts? Are they just… long songs with extra sweat? Turns out, they were something bigger—a full-blown movement with its own rules, rituals, drug codes, and DIY economy that quietly rewired the way we experience music today.

In this episode, Adam sits down with Mike Ayers, veteran music journalist and author of Sharing in the Groove: The Untold Story of the '90s Jam Band Exp...