A chance encounter leads to a life-altering revelation in the new podcast, Come by Chance

The podcast Come by Chance starts at a fairly innocuous place — at a staff break for birthday cake at a worksite on Newfoundland's coast. The cake is in honour of Craig Avery's 52nd birthday. Coincidentally, another coworker Clarence Hynes is also turning 52 and was born in the same hospital in the same small town as Craig  — Come By Chance.

The discovery starts a chain of events in motion that will ultimately change the course of their lives through the revelation of a devastating secret: the two men had been switched at birth. 

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Writer and audio producer Luke Quinton, who grew up and lives in St. John's, Newfoundland, hosts the series. He says he was immediately interested when news stories about the men started to trickle out.

"What really started to draw me in was how thoughtful and eloquent Craig and Clarence were when they started telling us about what they knew and what they had gone through," said Quinton. "I remember listening back to the recording where Clarence is describing the birthday party at work, and it was one of the most dramatic moments I'd ever heard on tape."

Below is a conversation with Quinton about the series.

You grew up in Newfoundland. Was that an important part of the story, or the story-telling process?

You can't really help it, the place, this island basically has its own sense of gravity. It's a character unto itself. The rhythms of life, the people, the figures of speech, even the weather, they seep into any story here. I think we were tapping into that vein, thinking about the practicalities, but also about folklore, and how stories like this move through communities.

We were thinking about history and the economy and people's lives, and about Newfoundland storytellers like Anita Best and the late, brilliant, Chris Brookes. Because Newfoundland, I mean it's not an easy place to figure out. There are layers here that aren't immediately apparent, and it can be tricky for outsiders, especially, to get the lay of the land. And yet there has been more exposure to Newfoundland in the past couple decades, so it was important for us, as producers, to steer clear of clichés and any kind of stereotypes of Newfoundlanders that might have entered the national conversation since then.

I grew up here and then spent many years away, so usually I feel like I have a foot in both worlds, understanding the deeper story that Newfoundlanders carry, and also being able to translate that for a wider audience who may struggle with the accents or the context.  

There is so much intimacy in the podcast. You're talking to people about their most precious memories and their fundamental beliefs about family and themselves. How did you get people to open up to you? 

That can be hard to explain — it's an intangible process. I've developed a lot of techniques over the years on how to help people feel comfortable, but technique only goes so far. Of course, some family members didn't want to talk, and you can understand why. But it seemed like the people who told their side of the story also got something out of the process. It's a little like a fishing trip. We're casting a line to see what comes back. And it's a collaboration, we're doing it together. But these interviews were special, many of them would go like three hours. I mean, it affected us as well, listening to hours and hours of tape, because there's an intensity running under each one. How could there not be? 

We just try to do justice to their experience to the fullest extent we possibly can. Ultimately I think you have to be completely honest with people and also let them know that they really are the ones in control. When I come to an interview situation like this, I have questions — so many questions — but what they feel comfortable saying, and how they say it, that is completely up to them. And it's also a very unpredictable process, because sometimes the most banal questions open up the most interesting answers. So it can be a bit of a fishing trip — but for me it's a collaboration that comes from a place of deep curiosity. I'm authentically curious with people and their stories, and there's no faking that. 

What surprised you about their stories?

So many things. Obviously some of these stories had made the news before, but I think we went more in depth, that's just the nature of a seven-part series — the level of detail we were asking for was intense. Just hearing about what each of them has gone through was eye-opening.  And hearing from several women about how close they came to having their newborns switched in hospital was always a bit shocking.

Though, probably the story that surprised me the most is one we tell in Episode 3, that it turned out Clarence Hynes and his doppelganger, Clifford Avery, who, we were told, had never really met in person, actually had made eye contact in passing, one day years before, while they were both working on Hibernia, the oil platform. The fated quality of it, that was an amazing detail. 

What does this project mean to you? 

It means a lot — as Newfoundlanders, we often feel like we have this great, endless well of stories, yet only a tiny fraction of them ever make it off the island. So anytime we have the spotlight pointed on us we want to make sure it's done well, done truthfully, in a way that resonates with people who live on the island and Labrador. The trick of it, I guess, is translating that for a more global audience. You want someone in the U.K., Texas, or Vancouver to press play on this and be swept away. And, straight up, I'm trying to make a piece of art. I want something that transports the listener into this world. Have we done that? Listeners can decide, but I think we made something special here. 

How did the medium of podcasting help tell this story in a way we haven't seen or heard before?

The ability to make longform stories is so key to this kind of storytelling. You're really able to sort of inhabit this world for a time, and as a listener I think that's the most amazing experience. Audio is such an interactive medium, the listener gets to take in the writing and the sounds, and really bring it alive in their own minds. 

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We had time for seven episodes, and there are still things that landed on the cutting room floor that could probably propel documentaries of their own! So the time, the budget, the amazing editors, producers, sound designer, musicians, as well as production, marketing, and operations managers — there's a lot of talent floating inside the podcast world right now, and it's very very satisfying to be working alongside so many people, all dedicated to telling these kinds of intense, satisfying, sound-rich stories. I think we're very lucky. 

What do you hope listeners will take away from this story?

I hope they'll feel as blown away hearing it as we did when we were putting it all together. I hope they'll feel goosebumps, and at the same time, also catch the sense of humour that pops up every now and then. It's a serious story, but I hope that comes across. I also hope that listeners hear a side of Newfoundland life that they haven't heard before — the Newfoundland beyond tourism commercials. 

What do you hope for the families affected by this?

Justice. Attention, and real action from the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The families have been calling, for years, for an investigation. I hope that if a politician in Newfoundland hears this series they'll start to understand how profound and long-lasting the effects have been on not just these individuals, but on their extended families and their communities. There's a 30-year statute of limitations, which blocks the families from bringing forward a legal case. That should be waived.

These families are basically left to live with actions that were allegedly committed by people in the provincial healthcare system, and the only reason they didn't come forward sooner is that the truth of what happened to them was impossible for them to know. I think listeners to the series will come away asking why the province hasn't done more to seriously address this situation. 

LISTEN | Come By Chance is a story about what it means to belong in a family — and how a twist of fate can upend the life you thought you knew. Listen and subscribe to Come by Chance.