Everything starts with a question.
Or at least that’s the case for Edgar B. Herwick III, host of GBH’s The Curiosity Desk. “By asking a question, you open a door,” he says. From there, the horizon widens, and you find yourself (“you” being Herwick, of course), scared out of your gourd in a bi-plane above Cape Cod, or wandering a cave in the woods of Lynn, or neck-deep in the Charles River. “It’s as much about inspiring new questions as it is arriving at an answer to the original question,” he says.
Over the course of its 12+ years, The Curiosity Desk has taken many forms — from a radio feature on GBH 89.7, a Facebook Live program, an evening radio call-in show, a weekly YouTube series on the GBH News channel, even a New Year’s Eve live episode — but now, it’s found an additional home on television locally on GBH 2 as a half-hour special. With increased runtime and no shortage of ideas, Herwick and the production team intend to keep plumbing the depths of the bizarrely specific audience-sourced questions that have launched The Curiosity Desk to new heights.
“From the beginning, The Curiosity Desk has been a malleable thing. We’ve hammered it into all kinds of shapes, seeing what works and what doesn’t,” says Herwick. “It’s like we’re going from writing short stories to novels. We can delve a little deeper and explore more angles of a story,” says Herwick. “Could it work? The only way to find out is to try.”
The half-hour special, which premiered on TV in late June, investigates whether one can actually still smell Boston’s Great Molasses Flood on hot summer days. The expanded format puts Herwick in his element: conducting interviews with passersby in Boston’s North End one minute, talking about the nature of smell with neuroscientists the next. Afforded more time, the Curiosity Desk team was able to incorporate “all three of the show’s main elements — history, science or how things work, and exploration,” says Herwick. Looking through the show’s catalog, you’ll find these ingredients in nearly every episode.
The origins of the program go back to Herwick’s time on Boston Public Radio. Having enjoyed hosting segments for that show, he was determined to stay in front of the camera and/or mic. He needed an angle, though. “We had a health desk, we had a something-else desk,” he remembers, “so I figured, why not a curiosity desk?”
As for the eponymous curiosity desk, the cumbersome crate can be traced back to a hobby Herwick picked up during the COVID pandemic: namely, buying and restoring old steamer trunks and other vintage containers. After reshelving it and cleaning it up, he thought it might add a traveling salesman aesthetic to the production. “Except, instead of snake oil and trinkets, I’m peddling stories and oddities,” Herwick says. (He’s also quick to add that the trunk’s been outfitted with wheels, and no production staff have been harmed in its deployment.)
Countless iterations have followed over the decade-plus since that initial pitch, but the heart of The Curiosity Desk remains Herwick’s unique knack for finding ways-in to a story — even if that means launching himself headfirst into it.
“No matter the format or audience, he’s a great storyteller,” says Stephanie Leydon, GBH’s News’ Executive Producer of Digital Video. “Whether it’s radio, video, or in writing, Edgar figures out a way to make a story engaging and resonant.”
This new foray into longer-form storytelling, adds Leydon, gives Edgar and his production team a chance to meet audiences where they are, while also fulfilling GBH’s mission of informing, educating, and inspiring. “What people love about The Curiosity Desk is this opportunity to see something they’re not going to find anywhere else, and it helps them understand the world more fully.”
For the team, the Molasses Flood episode is something of a dream come true, sharing such a unique part of Boston’s history with TV viewers and people streaming on the PBS app, in addition to their robust audience on YouTube. “It’s been amazing,” says Herwick, “the fact that I get to do this is so cool. I’m not just someone who works in public broadcasting, I’m a fan of public broadcasting.”
As for what’s next, Herwick and the team are keeping their cards close to their chest (and insist they still have a bit of a molasses hangover). “That molasses piece was a dream story for so long, so we’re still trying to figure out what’s our next white whale,” says Herwick.
“I think The Curiosity Desk resonates with audiences because there are a lot of people out there who are like me,” says Herwick, “curious, looking for stories that are a little bit more complicated than they may appear at first glance. It’s got cross-generational appeal — to be enjoyed by kids from 1 to 92!”
The Curiosity Desk releases new episodes on the first Wednesday of every month on the GBH News YouTube channel. You can also catch episodes on GBH 2 and GBH 44.
Keep in touch with The Curiosity Desk team on Instagram and TikTok. Have a curious question you need answered? Send your questions to The Curiosity Desk here!
