berrygrounds

In late 2024, award-winning journalist Rob Csernyik brought readers across the country an important investigation into the role legalised gambling is playing in suicides across the country.

In the course of his work, Csernyik found that Newfoundland and Labrador was one of the only provinces which couldn’t provide data on the role gambling was playing in suicides in this province — despite the massive growth of legalised gambling, and despite efforts by families of those whose lives ended too soon after struggling with gambling addiction.

A year after The Independent first published Csernyik’s investigation, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner began gathering data on gambling-related suicides.

Csernyik has now published a book, A Losing Hand: The Human Cost of Canada's Gambling Epidemic. He joined berrygrounds host Justin Brake at the Rotary Arts Centre in Corner Brook on Oct. 5, 2026 for a wide-ranging conversation about gambling and gambling-related suicides in Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada.

Host: Justin Brake
Guest: Rob Csernyik
Music: Shane Iver, Silverman Sound Studios

Further Reading:

• Preventing deaths like Susan Piercey’s (The Independent / Dec. 18, 2024)
• Learning lessons from Susan Piercey’s death (The Independent / Dec. 19, 2024)
• Dying to win: Canadian provinces are expanding legal gambling despite one death every nine days (Rirochet Media / Dec. 17, 2024)
• The Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Investigative Reporting (Michener Awards Foundation)

If you haven’t already, sign up for The Independent’s free email newsletter.

If you like berrygrounds and would like to support the show, please consider becoming a monthly donor to The Independent. 

berrygrounds is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network. The show is hosted, produced and edited by me, Justin Brake.

Freedom of Information laws are under attack across Canada, most notably in Ontario, where the Doug Ford government has stripped journalists' and the public's right to obtain records from the premier's office and some of the highest levels of government.

In this episode, Justin Brake speaks with Newfoundland and Labrador Information and Privacy Commissioner Kerry Hatfield, who says what's happening in Ontario is a travesty, not just for that province but for the entire country.

Hatfield explains what makes Newfoundland and Labrador's access to information laws unique, and why we need to protect in the forthcoming statutory review of the province's 2015 ATIPP Act.

If you haven’t already, sign up for The Independent’s free email newsletter. When we learn more about the statutory review of the province’s access to information legislation, including the process and timelines for gathering public input, we’ll let you know.

If you like berrygrounds and would like to support the show, please consider becoming a monthly donor to The Independent. 

berrygrounds is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network. The show is hosted, produced and edited by me, Justin Brake.

Music in this episode is thanks to Shane Iver at Silverman Sound Studio.

Tech journalist, author and podcast host Paris Marx joins Justin Brake for a wide-ranging discussion about Artificial Intelligence and the ways AI is impacting our lives and the environment. Recorded live April 25, 2026 at the Rotary Arts Centre in Corner Brook, with Paris Marx joining virtually from St. John’s.

berrygrounds is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network. Visit Harbinger for more progressive Canadian podcasts.

Music in this episode, Gravitational Collapse, courtesy Shane Ivers of Silverman Sound Studios.

Further Reading:

Major N.L. healthcare report contains errors likely generated by A.I. (The Independent / Nov. 22, 2025)
PCs to review A.I. use in government-commissioned reports (The Independent / Nov. 24, 2025)
Province updated public procurement process days after Deloitte AI scandal exposed (The Independent / March 18, 2026)
Generative AI is a societal disaster (Disconnect / Paris Marx / Oct. 24, 2025)
'Disgraceful' deep-fake AI video condemned by presidential candidate (BBC / Oct. 22, 2025)

It's a fishery buzzword — a lifeline for many coastal communities and a luxurious menu item driving a global seafood craze.

Lobster—one time once considered a poor man's food—now fuels a multi-billion-dollar machine. But investigative journalist Greg Mercer's book, The Lobster Trap: The Global Fight for a Seafood on the Brink, tells a different story—one unfolding both above and below the ocean’s surface.

In Ep. 15 of berrygrounds, Seasplainer authors Jenn Thornhill Verma and Leila Beaudoin interview Mercer, a reporter with the Globe & Mail, about the time he spent with fishermen in Atlantic Canada and what he learned about lobster in the process of writing his book.   

A very special thanks to Kelly Russell and Pigeon Inlet Productions for sharing with us Lem Snow's recording of The Great Lobster Boil.

If you like berrygrounds and would like to support the show, please consider becoming a monthly donor to The Independent. 

berrygrounds is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network. 

Have you ever wondered why and how the pitcher plant became a symbol of Newfoundland and Labrador, and of our collective identity?

“The pitcher plant is unique, creative and resilient. It is beautiful and tenacious, tough and adaptable. It has thrived throughout all regions of our province for centuries, just as our people have done," Premier Danny Williams said in 2006 at a launch for the province's new "brand" signature. “It is an important part of our history and a true symbol of who we are and what we’re made of. It is the symbol by which the world will know us.”

Sarracenia purpurea "really is resilient and creative," Sara Swain writes in her new essay for The Independent, Lessons from the Pitcher Plant. "But the source of its celebrated qualities is not its carnivory; it is its mutual hospitality, collaboration, and cooperation. This living reality makes it an auspicious symbol for Newfoundland and Labrador after all, just not for the reasons we’ve come to expect."

In Ep. 14, Swain reads her full essay for our listeners. And she tells host Justin Brake about how reflections on her own identity as a Newfoundlander, and a chance encounter with a pitcher plant near her favourite St. John's swimming hole, led her to writing the essay.

Lessons from the Pitcher Plant was originally published Jan. 24, 2024 at TheIndependent.ca. Click here to read the full essay.

Very special thanks to All The Wiles (Katie Baggs, Jared Klok, Ben Rigby, Billy Nicol and Jake Nicol) for their song "Handful of Sand".

If you like berrygrounds and would like to support the show, please consider becoming a monthly donor to The Independent. 

berrygrounds is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network and Unrigged.ca. 

Did we learn anything from Muskrat Falls and the public inquiry that followed? Surely, a multi-billion dollar project with significant resistance from locals wouldn't be pushed through without a social license...again? 

That's exactly what residents of the West Coast say is happening with World Energy GH2's Project Nujio'qonik, a proposed wind-to-hydrogen megaproject that would see hundreds of windmills scattered across the Port au Port Peninsula and the Codroy Valley.

Residents are watching in horror as the company and the province appear to be rushing the project through the approvals process in order to be first to market.

In this episode, we speak with Port au Port resident Duran Felix, a retired analyst who spent his career reviewing documents for Canada's military and has reviewed World Energy GH2's 4,000-plus page environmental impact statement. We also speak with Camille Ouellette-Dallaire, an assistant professor of environmental science at Memorial University's Grenfell campus in Corner Brook who once worked for the federal government reviewing environmental impact statements.

For some backstory, listen to berrygrounds Episode 2: Port au Port and the Wind Industry Acid Test.

If you like our show and would like to support berrygrounds' coverage of the province's emerging wind-to-hydrogen industry, please consider becoming a monthly subscriber. 

The songs "Depth of Focus" and "Fearful New World" are courtesy Shane Ivers of Silverman Sound Studios. 

Innu children have been taken from their families, communities and culture for decades. But now, after a years-long fight for change, Innu are sharing their stories and truths through the Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System.

On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we speak with Simeon Tshakapesh and Anastasia Qupee, two of the Innu leaders who fought for the inquiry.

For more information on the inquiry, visit www.inniuna.ca.

If you like our show and would like to support berrygrounds' coverage of the climate crisis and other important stories, please consider becoming a monthly subscriber. 

The songs "Snowdrops" and "Spark of Inspiration" are courtesy Shane Ivers of Silverman Sound Studios. "Oh Canada" was performed by Jully Black at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. 

In this episode of berrygrounds, we debut a short documentary from journalist Monica Kidd, who visited Channel-Port aux Basques on the eve of the one-year anniversary of post-tropical storm Fiona. In "Swept by the Sea," Monica speaks with residents and leaders from the community, as well as NTV Chief Meteorologist Eddie Sheerr, who made a phone call the night before Fiona hit that saved people's lives.

In the second half, host Justin Brake speaks with Canadian Hurricane Centre Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Bob Robichaud, who explains what storm surge is and tells berrygrounds that the federal government is developing a new program to better predict the impacts of extreme weather events.

If you like our show and would like to support berrygrounds' coverage of the climate crisis and other important stories, please consider becoming a monthly subscriber. 

Music from "Swept by the Sea" is from the Creative Commons: Residuum by Silver Maple, Who’s there by Peter Sandberg, Twire by Christophe Gorman, and Sentient by Gavin Luke. And for berrygrounds, The Wonders of Science is courtesy Shane Ivers of Silverman Sound Studios.

With Bay du Nord on hold, Newfoundland & Labrador is at a critical juncture on energy policy and climate change. Despite the grim outlook for oil and gas, and amid climate breakdown, the Andrew Furey government continues to champion fossil fuel development. As an investigation by The Independent unearthed, the Liberals have also quietly adopted an energy transition policy developed by consulting firm that seeks to prolong the life of the fossil fuel industry. We speak with author and climate/energy policy researcher Angela Carter, Conor Curtis of the Sierra Club Canada, and listen to a speech from the Sept. 15 student-led climate march in St. John's organized by Fridays for Future.

If you like our show and would like to support us, please consider becoming a monthly subscriber. 

Songs Corrupted, One With Everything, and Against Time courtesy Shane Ivers of Silverman Sound Studios.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, there are two things without which we probably wouldn’t be here: the sea, and the fish.

But how much do we really know about them? In an era of offshore oil, mega hydro dams, and now an impending wind energy industry — have we become indifferent to the fisheries? 

What we do hear about them seems so unrelatable: quotas and metric tons, prices per pound, licensing regulations. 

How did something so important to our economy, and our identity, become so hard to understand?

In Episode 9 of berrygrounds we speak with award-winning journalists Jenn Thornhill Verma and Leila Beaudoin, who have teamed up with The Independent to create something that we didn't have in Newfoundland and Labrador: an explainer series about the fisheries and the sea.

You can find the Seasplainer series on The Independent's website.

Click here to support The Independent with a monthly donation.

The song "Sunsetter" courtesy of Shane Ivers at Silverman Sound Studios.