GBH News has launched a video version of The Curiosity Desk that provides answers to perplexing questions from GBH listeners like ‘Why do some intersections allow a right on red and others don't?’ ‘Is it really illegal to tear the tags off of mattresses?’ and ‘What and when are the dog days of summer?’ We asked host Edgar B. Herwick III to tell us more about the move from radio to video, his favorite episodes and the story of Edgar B. Herwick I and II.

What do you like best about doing The Curiosity Desk?
I think of The Curiosity Desk as being the multimedia version of a sidebar in a newspaper article. I basically get to ask questions for a living. And it's different every day. Every time I take on a new story, my job is to try to become a mini-expert really quickly. And then I get to talk to experts who know much more about the subject than I do. Topics can range anywhere from astrophysics to a niche period of U.S. history, to etymology and beyond.

How is the journalism different on The Curiosity Desk compared to a hard news desk?
When you're covering straight news, you may be trying to get information that somebody does not want to give you, like asking a politician to take a stance on an issue. It can be kind of difficult. The people that I talk to for The Curiosity Desk often don’t get asked about their work as much, so they're very happy to talk and they're really passionate. It’s very inspirational and infectious. I love that I then get to communicate that to a broader audience. I love being a conduit.

Do you have favorite episodes?
The Curiosity Desk basically covers mysteries hiding in plain sight all around us. I loved the story about the Star Market in Newton over the Mass Pike. To me, the best Curiosity Desk stories are the ones that, when somebody sees the story, they realize they have been asking themselves that question for a long time. The one about the Hubble Telescope is also a favorite because I got to interview an MIT astronaut who had to go on spacewalks to replace the telescope’s mirror.

Tell us about the new video series.
It's a way for us to take what we know has worked really well on radio and bring it into a new place. YouTube is full of people answering questions. We hope that we can distinguish ourselves in that space by bringing in more subtlety and complexity even while we're keeping it loose and fun. We take the next step with journalistic integrity and credibility by connecting the audience with an expert who knows what they're talking about.

How did you come to be a journalist in public media?
I was working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in marketing and communications. We worked very closely with local journalists. That's where I really started to get the bug. We also worked with local public broadcasting like WHYY. I came to realize that I didn’t just want to do journalism, I wanted to work in public media. One thing I love about public media is that our audience gets to vote with their pocketbooks on whether or not they like what we do. If we're not staying connected with our audience, if we're not building relationships with them, if we're not showing some value in their lives, our system doesn't work.

We’re curious, who are Edgar B. Herwick I and II?
The “B” stands for Boyle, so it's Edgar Boyle Herwick. My great-grandfather, who was the father of the original Edgar B. Herwick, had an Army buddy who saved his life in the Spanish American War. My great-grandfather and his army buddy survived. His buddy's name was Edgar Boyle. So when my great-grandfather had his first son, he named him Edgar Boyle Herwick, who then named his son (my father) Edgar B. Herwick II.

New episodes will appear each Wednesday over sixteen weeks on the YouTube, as well as Instagram, gbhnews.org and on GBH 89.7.
Have questions for The Curiosity Desk? Get in touch with Herwick directly with your questions and follow the series at wgbh.org/curiositydesk.

See the latest episode Why Do We Carve Pumpkins into Jack-O'-Lanterns For Halloween? And read another Q&A with Herwick on Muck Rack here.