GBH’s Antiques Roadshow made a surprising discovery in Charleston, SC in 2000 – a circa 1850 two-seated chair made for famous conjoined twins Cheng and Eng Bunker. DETOURS host Adam Monahan long believed there must be a second chair lost to history, but a serendipitous phone conversation with humorist Mo Rocca not only solved the mystery of the missing chair, but also revealed Mo’s own historical look at the famous twins captured in an episode of his podcast Mobituaries. 

Here for DETOURS listeners is Mobituaries episode “Cheng and Eng: A Messy American Dream “ where Mo travels to Mount Airy, North Carolina - the inspiration for Andy Griffith's Mayberry and the real life home of conjoined Siamese twins, Chang and Eng - to join their many descendants for their annual family reunion.

GBH’s Antiques Roadshow is known for mind-blowing valuations, but often the owners and their stories are the true treasures–like Arnold Shapiro, the guest who was responsible for putting Peanuts cartoons on Hallmark greeting cards. Hear more about Arnold’s 12-year relationship with the iconic Charles Schulz and follow the journey of his comic strip collection from six-figure TV appraisal to a permanent home at the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

It is the dream scenario on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow: your object is appraised for more than you ever imagined. But when that object is a beloved family treasure, do you keep or sell? This hypothetical becomes a reality for Theresa after she learns that her inherited New Orleans Art Pottery jardinière, which she personally kept safe during Hurricane Katrina, is worth thousands. Theresa joins host Adam Monahan as she shares her post-show journey and reveals her ultimate decision. 

A collection of 1993 "Magic: The Gathering" Beta cards are appraised on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow for up to $100,000 leaving producers wondering when–and why–did these modern collectibles get so valuable? Host Adam Monahan heads straight to the source for answers: with a trip to a Magic tournament, and an interview with Richard Garfield, the creator of “Magic: The Gathering,” himself! 

Watch the appraisal clip at https://www.wgbh.org/podcast/detours.

News that a famous Galileo manuscript at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor was revealed to be a fake raises questions about a similar letter that appeared on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in 2014. Did the show get it wrong? And how can a fake be so convincing it fools multiple experts? Host Adam Monahan, joined by forgery-sniffing historian Nick Wilding, dig into a world of deception to uncover if the producers are in for a letdown.

In 1965, Gale Sayers was the first-round draft pick for the Chicago Bears, kicking off a history-making NFL career. 41 years later, a bloody, torn up jersey worn by Sayers appears on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow after narrowly being saved from a fate as a cleaning rag. What follows is an epic TV appraisal that leads to a surprise at the auction block. Join host Adam Monahan as he follows the story and, with help from sports writer Fred Mitchell, dives deeper into the life of the football legend along the way.

Watch the appraisal clip at https://www.wgbh.org/podcast/detours.

GBH’s Antiques Roadshow has a fair share of characters cross its set, but none like the towering, booming-voiced cowboy who attended the 2018 taping in Tulsa, OK.  With a rare red diamond ring, cowboy Jim sought to learn the gem’s value. But would his $35K gamble pay off big? Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the mystery behind red diamonds and the improbable end to this story!

Journey behind-the-scenes as Season 3 of DETOURS dives into the dirt behind some of the items found on America’s favorite antiques show! Join Adam Monahan, host and longtime producer for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, as he reveals more never-before-told stories of fakes, fumbles, and unforgettable moments that happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

In 2014 a gorgeous painting was brought to GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in Bismarck, ND. The appraisal was selected by producers but ultimately cut from the episode before it aired. What made this piece of art so controversial? The late 1800s oil featured a nude woman. Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the tricky question of which parts of the body can be shown on broadcast TV and how issues of culture, politics, religion, viewer complaints and FCC regulations all play a role. But does this painting get a second chance on the airwaves?

Longtime folk art expert for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, Wes Cowan, has seen so many unusual items that very little surprises him. But a perplexing apothecary bottle filled with colored sand brought to the show in Hot Springs, AR in 2002 led to his discovery of a 19th century artist with an amazing story and no auction records at that time. Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the story of the artist who lost his hearing and speech as a result of a childhood illness and later designed remarkable sand art created grain-by-grain, and the two appraisers who would be transfixed by what happened at auction!

A collection of vintage mousetraps appraised on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in 2016 became eerily relevant as DETOURS host Adam Monahan faced an ongoing war with rats in his own urban backyard. Are these disease-carrying pests or intelligent emotional beings? Join the lively journey tracing back to the earliest forms of traps and efforts to control rat populations along with expert musings from the rat’s point of view on whether there really is a better way to build a mouse trap.

Celebrity letters provide a glimpse into what was happening in that person’s life in a particular moment in time, beyond what the newspapers were printing. When a fiery letter written by legendary star Frank Sinatra was appraised on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in Tulsa, OK in 2018 that glimpse revealed a raw response to a letter from a prison chaplain, asking forgiveness for the two men who abducted Sinatra’s son in 1963. What was the one point around the kidnapping deemed unforgivable by the entertainer? Join host Adam Monahan as he digs into the kidnapping and its tragic and lasting aftermath.

It’s a little-known fact that appraisers on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow are not paid to appear on the show. What keeps them on-set for 10+ hour days season after season? The special excitement from coming face-to-face with a once-in-a-lifetime object. So when a guest brought what they thought to be Rodin’s sculpture “Eternal Spring” to the show in Fort Worth, TX, would the piece of art turn out to be an extraordinary find or a fake? Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the surprising story of the sculpture and the lasting mark left on two appraisers.

A cast-iron mechanical bank appraised in 1997 and broadcast on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow was resurfaced by producers when reviewing archival content for an upcoming show. The appraisal is strikingly outdated in that it never properly acknowledged an aspect that today feels impossible to ignore – racism. But can an ugly part of history be used to inspire important conversations? Join host Adam Monahan as he seeks to learn from experts about discussing items with offensive historical backgrounds and how a show about the past should approach difficult topics in the future.

When humorist Mo Rocca appeared on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, he was eager to find out the true identity of a treasured antique store purchase - a bronze-painted plaster bust he long believed was President Grover Cleveland. Though his TV appraisal yielded no answer, the name of the stranger he’s lived with for years has finally been revealed! Join host Adam Monahan on a hilarious journey - which included the New York Times, New York Police Department and Cleveland’s own grandson - to unravel the mystery behind the mustachioed model.

An early-American desk and bookcase set was appraised in 2006 at GBH’s Antiques Roadshow for a whopping $250,000. But was this coveted circa 1775 two-piece secretary a match made in heaven? Join host Adam Monahan as he discovers how a shocking secret revealed after the show making the piece even more rare, along with a powerful new market trend combine to dramatically change the value.

The legendary comedic duo Laurel & Hardy have a very dedicated fanbase. But will a relic toy soldier from their 1934 film, Babes in Toyland, have the owner laughing all the way to the bank? We follow one soldier’s march from appraisal to the auction block, to find out what it’s really worth. Along the way Adam crashes a meeting of the international Laurel and Hardy fan club - yes you read that correctly -- and tracks down the one other soldier known to survive from the film.

Can you put a price on Christmas? Years after a visit to GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, Santa and Rudolph original puppets from the beloved 1964 stop-motion-animation holiday special Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer made their way to the auction block. Join host Adam Monahan as he uncovers the story of the puppet’s discovery and restoration, the bidding surprise at auction no one expected, and whether efforts to keep these cultural touchstones on public display succeeded!

A guest’s experience at GBH’s Antiques Roadshow starts an investigative journey to determine if her family’s heirloom Tongan war club was actually brought to England aboard one of Captain Cook’s ships as family notes suggested. If proven true, the value of the club soars to over $100,000. Join host Adam Monahan to discover what we learned - and how a strange tale from another ship’s captain led to the club’s shocking history and a call for it to be returned to its land of origin.

A tiny portrait of a young Philadelphia woman, not much larger than a pocket watch, memorializes a life lost in 1798 during the Yellow Fever outbreak. Join host Adam Monahan as he explores the tragic story behind the portrait. What does this family heirloom tell us about honoring life and death during a pandemic, and what sad but instructive lessons does history reveal about life in a pandemic that are relevant today?

The producers for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow know - “kids with old stuff make great TV.” And after 25 seasons some of those kids are, well, no longer kids! From dumpster finds to $2 auction buys, join host Adam Monahan as he discovers what happened to these young guests and their famous items, how they became antiquers at such a young age and if any of them are still collecting?

A pair of Tiffany lamps go missing years after appearing on GBH’s Antiques Roadshow. Just how far would someone go to get their hands on these lamps? And just how far would someone else go to get them back? DETOURS host Adam Monahan talks to those close to the story including the private investigator who ultimately cracked the case.

See the missing lamps at www.wgbh.org/detours.

In 2015, a guest brought a strange looking pot to the set of GBH’s Antiques Roadshow in Spokane, WA, where an expert appraised it as a “19th century grotesque face jug” worth $30,000 - $50,000. After the episode aired, a viewer contacted the series to share information which shocked producers and wound up in the national news. Find out what they learned and what happened next when DETOURS host Adam Monahan sets out to find answers.

See the original full appraisal at www.wgbh.org/detours.

Viewed over 20 million times, the two most popular videos on the YouTube page for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow were posted years apart but are remarkably similar: both feature appraisals of Rolex watches. Why do these timepieces capture the public in a way unlike any other object featured on the show? And what is it like to be the unexpected star of a “viral” video? Join DETOURS host Adam Monahan as he dives deep into the world of vintage watch collecting, both online and off.

Watch the Rolex appraisals and more at www.wgbh.org/detours.  

Step behind-the-scenes as Season 2 of DETOURS podcast pulls the curtain back on America’s favorite antiques show! Join Adam Monahan, host and longtime producer for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, as he dives into all new mysteries, magic, and mistakes that happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

Fifty years ago, a scrappy group of public television producers right here in Boston had the brilliant idea to import the best of British drama and air it on PBS. Those producers worked here at WGBH, and the series they created, Masterpiece Theatre, is still going strong. This first episode of Making MASTERPIECE, a new documentary miniseries from our friends at MASTERPIECE, tells that unlikely origin story. Subscribe to MASTERPIECE Studio wherever you listen to podcasts. Look for Masterpiece Studio wherever you get your podcasts or visit them at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/podcasts/masterpiece-studio/

More than 155 million treasures fill the Smithsonian’s vaults, but where public view ends, Sidedoor begins. With the help of biologists, artists, historians, archaeologists, zookeepers, and astrophysicists, host Lizzie Peabody sneaks listeners through Smithsonian’s side door to search for stories that can’t be found anywhere else. Follow us at @SidedoorPod for updates and bonus content.

We wanted to share a podcast episode from our friends at America’s Test Kitchen. Here’s a taste of their podcast PROOF that we thought you’d enjoy.

“Raiders of the Lost Yeast”

Seamus Blackley is the creator of the Xbox. He’s also an ancient Egypt enthusiast and baking hobbyist. Yes, you heard that right. Via Twitter, he assembled a rag-tag team of specialists: an archeologist (Dr. Serena Love) and a biologist (Rich Bowman). Together, they created a grand scheme: extract dormant yeast from the nooks and crannies of ancient Egyptian pots stored in the vaults of the world’s most prestigious museums and bake bread with it. 

Subscribe to PROOF wherever you listen to podcasts.

Carolyn Hollander brought two items for appraisal at GBH’s Antiques Roadshow: an engraved gold watch and a leather bound book. The book is over two hundred pages thick, complete with photographs, a family tree, and personal stories -- all compiled by her grandfather, a supreme court judge in 1930s Germany. Carolyn never met her grandfather, who was killed during the Holocaust.  Carolyn’s visit to Roadshow begins a journey to recover her family’s artifacts lost during the Holocaust.

See pages from Carolyn’s family record book and more: www.wgbh.org/detours.

Inspector Adam Monahan dusts off his deerstalker cap to investigate an 18th century Chinese screen painting. But when the screen surprisingly sells at auction for over ten times the estimated value, to a Korean bidder, the origins of the screen are suddenly thrown into question. In this ‘Roadshow Radio Mystery Special,’ Adam goes on the hunt to learn where this screen actually comes from.

Here is the screen for your screening: www.wgbh.org/detours

Go to wgbh.org/podcastsurvey and let us know what you think of our show.

Photographs of Edgar Allan Poe are incredibly rare. The famed writer sat for portraits only a few times, resulting in eight unique images, known as daguerreotypes. When one appeared on the TV show in Omaha, NE it seemed too good to be true.  Then the FBI called.  It’s a tale never shared before on TV. And but for this podcast may be shared nevermore.

Check out the purloined portrait: www.wgbh.org/detours

In 2013, GBH’s Antiques Roadshow appraiser John Buxton met a guest claiming to have an ancient Mayan carving. Buxton’s gut said this was a fake but the guest had paperwork proving otherwise. Is it possible Buxton’s instinct was right all along?  DETOURS host Adam dives into the deceitful  world of forged artifacts, following a story that still eludes appraiser John Buxton, AKA ‘the King of Fakes.’

Judge for yourself. Check out the Mayan Jade and more: www.wgbh.org/detours

The legendary comedic duo Laurel & Hardy have a very dedicated fanbase. But will a relic toy soldier from their 1934 film, Babes in Toyland, have the owner laughing all the way to the bank? We follow one soldier’s march from appraisal to the auction block, to find out what it’s really worth. Along the way Adam crashes a meeting of the international Laurel and Hardy fan club - yes you read that correctly -- and tracks down the one other soldier known to survive from the film.

Adam Monahan, producer for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, attempts to verify what could be one of the most valuable objects to ever appear on the program: a flag from John F. Kennedy’s famed navy boat, the PT-109. With the help of a chemist, an appraiser, an author and a curator (oh, and his mom too), Adam tries to determine whether or not we have a national treasure on our hands.

What happens to all that stuff seen on WGBH’s Antiques Roadshow once the cameras leave town? The new DETOURS podcast picks up where the appraisals left off. Join host and longtime Roadshow producer Adam Monahan as he goes behind the scenes to reveal the stories, secrets, and surprises of some really old stuff never shared before.