Discover
The Compendium Podcast

The Compendium Podcast
Author: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Subscribed: 50Played: 1,706Subscribe
Share
© 2025 The Compendium Podcast
Description
True stories stranger than fiction — bizarre crimes, forgotten history, extraordinary people, and real events too strange to make up. Every week, Kyle and Adam bring you the dark, weird, and fascinating stories you’ll be glad you found.
140 Episodes
Reverse
Julia Child celebrated household name, started as a wartime OSS desk jockey who later conquered Le Cordon Bleu and American TV - loudly, brilliantly, and without apologising.
Starting with Julie & Julia, we follow her late-in-life Paris awakening, the brutal Le Cordon Bleu learning curve, and the obsessive testing that became Mastering the Art of French Cooking. There’s OSS shark repellent, Paul Child’s steady love, and then the moment she turns a TV omelette into a second career. Suddenly it’s The French Chef - and dinner becomes comedy.
Topics include
Julie & Julia and what the film gets right (Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci)
Le Cordon Bleu, French cuisine, and learning late
Mastering the Art of French Cooking and why it mattered
OSS shark repellent and the strangest pre-chef CV
The French Chef, cooking show chaos, and the Dan Aykroyd SNL skit
Resources and Further Reading
Julia Child - Wikipedia
Julie & Julia - by Nora Ephron
SNL The French Chef - youtube
Shark Repellant Work - cia.gov
Julias Kitchen - Smithsonian Museum
Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Wikipedia
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
H.H. Holmes built the infamous Murder Castle during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This episode explores the true story behind the disappearances, the fraud, and how one of America’s first serial killers was finally caught.
Using false identities, staged scams, and a building designed to confuse and trap, Holmes turned murder into a business model. As victims vanished and his schemes began to collapse, investigators uncovered a case of fraud, deception, and calculated killing that helped turn him into one of the most notorious figures in American crime history.
Topics include
the design and purpose of the Murder Castle
Holmes’ life as Herman Mudgett
insurance fraud, false identities, and calculated killings
the role of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
how H.H. Holmes was finally caught
Resources and Further Reading
H.H. Holmes - Wikipedia
The Devil in the White City - by Erik Larson
American Horror Story: Hotel - Ryan Murphy
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Biosphere 2 was meant to prove we could build a world from scratch. Instead, it became a fight to keep the air breathable and the story from turning toxic.
In 1991, eight people sealed themselves inside a vast Arizona terrarium designed to test whether a closed ecosystem could sustain human life and one day help us survive on Mars. What followed was not just a biosphere experiment under glass, but a slow collision between science, survival, collapsing oxygen levels, and a press narrative determined to call it a joke. This week, we dig into what really happened inside Biosphere 2, why the project began to unravel, and whether it was ever the failure people still think it was.
Topics include
The Biosphere 2 experiment and its original Mars habitat ambitions
Why oxygen levels dropped inside the sealed ecosystem
The biospherians, food shortages, and life inside the dome
How media coverage helped distort the story of Biosphere 2
Whether Biosphere 2 failed, or was misunderstood from the start
Resources and Further Reading
Biosphere 2 - Wikipedia
Life under the bubble - Discover magazine
The Human Experiment - by Jane Poynter
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Morgan Metzer survived a home invasion that ended with a far darker truth: the man who came to save her may have known exactly what happened.
On New Year's Eve in Canton, Georgia, a masked attacker entered a locked home, used intimate knowledge of the house, and left one woman bound, beaten, and terrified. The first person to find her was the ex-husband she still trusted, but the details of the night pointed somewhere far closer to home. This is a chilling story of gaslighting, coercive control, psychological abuse, and the case that later inspired Gaslit by My Husband.
Topics include
The New Year's Eve home invasion at the centre of Morgan Metzer's story
How gaslighting and coercive control shaped the years before the attack
The warning signs of psychological abuse hidden inside an old relationship
The real case behind Gaslit by My Husband
Resources and Further Reading
Gaslit by My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story - Stream on Paramount
Georgia man who attacked - CBS News
From hero to villain - CBS News
Saved by Her Ex-Husband - People.com
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Nellie Bly faked madness to enter Blackwell's Island asylum, then turned fearless reporting into a 72-day race around the world.
Before she became a legend, Elizabeth Cochran was a young reporter trying to force her way into a profession that barely made room for women. This episode follows her rise from sharp-tongued columnist to daring undercover journalist, as she exposes the cruelty inside Blackwell's Island, builds her reputation through investigative journalism, and catches the eye of Joseph Pulitzer. From Ten Days in a Mad House to a globe-spanning stunt that made her famous, it is a story about nerve, performance, ambition, and the price of becoming extraordinary.
Topics include:
Her early career and the making of Nellie Bly
Going undercover inside Blackwell’s Island asylum
What her investigation revealed about care, cruelty, and institutional neglect
Investigative journalism as performance, risk, and public spectacle
Joseph Pulitzer, the New York World, and the machinery of sensational reporting
Her 72-day trip around the world and the frenzy that followed
Resources and Further Reading
10 days in a madhouse - by Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly - Wikipedia
Woman & The American Story - nyhistory.org
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In 2019, eBay went full villain in one of Silicon Valley’s biggest cyberstalking scandals. Today we’re diving into the fragile ego at the top, and the lengths the CEO went to in a harassment campaign against a wholesome suburban couple in Boston.
After critical posts hit a nerve, eBay’s CEO instructed their Global Security team to take down nay sayers at any cost. Today we track the emails, fake accounts, doorstep packages, and the FBI investigation that drags the whole operation into the light.
Topics include
EcommerceBytes, Ina and David Steiner, and the criticism eBay could not ignore
eBay cyberstalking tactics, fake accounts, and a harassment campaign gone rogue
Threat Matrix, private dossiers, and what Global Security thought it was doing
How the FBI traced the stalking back to eBay executives and DOJ charges
Resources and Further Reading
eBay stalking scandal - Wikipedia
Take her down - Boston Magazine
Execs Made Life Hell for Critics - Wired
USA vs. eBay - Defered Prosecution Agreement
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The West Memphis Three story is a nightmare of panic, pressure, and vanished evidence, where a confession mattered more than truth.
In 1993, three eight-year-old boys vanished in West Memphis, Arkansas, then turned up murdered in Robin Hood Hills. As the Satanic Panic crept into the investigation, police chased a satanic ritual narrative and built a case around Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelley, fuelled by a false confession and courtroom “experts” who should never have been there. Years later, the hair evidence in a ligature knot and the Alford plea that freed them leave one brutal question hanging: if they walked out, who never got caught?
Topics include
Satanic Panic hysteria and a wrongful conviction built on fear
Jesse Misskelley’s false confession and the interrogation tactics behind it
Paradise Lost and West of Memphis, and how the documentaries shifted the case
The Alford plea, the hair evidence in the knot, and why the case stayed unresolved
DNA testing and the long fight for full exoneration
Resources and Further Reading
West Memphis Three - Wikipedia
The Satanic Panic - Wikipedia
Paradise Lost (1996) - Documentry
West of Memphis (2012) - Peter Jackson
Devil's Knot - Mara Leveritt
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
McMillions exposed how McDonald’s Monopoly was quietly hijacked, turning “random” winners into a pattern the FBI could not ignore.
It started with a tip that sounded like sour grapes, but then the FBI noticed something odd: all the winners were connected. The lead led to the realisation that the McDonald’s Monopoly game was rigged, and had been for most of its existence. And the man behind it was Uncle Jerry, Jerry Jacobson. What emerged was a secret FBI initiative dubbed Operation Final Answer, and a co-ordinated national sting.
Topics include
Jerry Jacobson and the inside job at the heart of McDonald’s Monopoly
How game pieces were stolen, swapped, and funnelled to “winners”
The St Jude prize story and why it made perfect cover
Operation Final Answer and the FBI’s plan for simultaneous arrests
Simon Marketing and the blind spots that let it run for years
Resources and Further Reading
McMillions (2020) - TV Mini Series
McDonalds Monopoly Scam - Wikipedia
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Chowchilla bus kidnapping began like any school run, then veered into a buried alive ordeal no one could have imagined.
One moment a group of kids are arguing about snacks, the next they are being marched off a bus by men who clearly skipped Kidnapping 101. While the town panics, the abductors bungle their own plan and promptly disappear, leaving 27 people trapped underground with no idea what happens next. What unfolds is a mix of fear, grit, and surprisingly resourceful thinking as the captives take matters into their own hands.
Topics include
Chowchilla
Michael Marshall
Ed Ray
Buried alive schoolchildren
Largest child kidnapping case in US history
Resources and Further Reading
1976 Chowchilla kidnapping - Wikipedia
Edward Ray - The City Of Chowchilla
They’ve Taken Our Children, 1993 - by Vern Gillum
The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping - Vox
Chowchilla bus kidnapping - Rare photos CBS
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Suffolk Strangler turned Ipswich into a locked-door city. Five women vanish from the red light district and the road home becomes a crime scene.
In December 2006, the Ipswich murders unfold at terrifying speed as five women are found dumped on rural roads outside the town. Panic turns the streets silent, while the women at the centre of the story are reduced to headlines instead of humans. Inside Operation Sumac, detectives chase CCTV footage, a Ford Mondeo, DNA evidence and forensic fibres to close in on Steve Wright.
Topics include
Steve Wright and the Suffolk Strangler timeline
The Ipswich serial killer panic and the city’s response
Life and risk inside the Ipswich red light district
How was Steve Wright caught using CCTV footage and DNA evidence
What the case reveals about who gets protected in Ipswich
Resources and Further Reading
Ipswich serial murders - Wikipedia
Wright guilty of Suffolk murders - The Guardian
Murder in the Red Light - Apple TV
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In June 2002, a Federal Heights neighbourhood wakes to panic as the investigation stalls and fractures. With suspicion falling on handyman Richard Ricci, the Smart family turns to the spotlight and America’s Most Wanted. The search may end, but the legal fight begins, with an insanity defence and Elizabeth forced to reclaim her voice.
Topics include
Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, and the belief system behind the control
Salt Lake City, the LDS Church, and the media storm around the case
America’s Most Wanted, the sketch, and the moment Elizabeth was recognised
Aftermath, testimony, and survivor advocacy
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Two men stalk Los Angeles at night, dumping bodies across the hills as police scramble to understand a pattern of terror unfolding in plain sight.
This episode examines the Hillside Stranglers case, following Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono as their murders gripped Los Angeles in the late 1970s. We explore how victims were selected, the pressure mounting on investigators, the bizarre multiple personality defence attempt, and the Veronica Compton plot that nearly derailed justice before the case finally collapsed in on itself.
Topics include
The Hillside Strangler murders
Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono
Victim targeting and dumping sites
The failed multiple personality defence
The Veronica Compton copycat plot
Resources and Further Reading
The Hillside Strangler – Wikipedia
Kenneth Bianchi – Crime & Investigation UK
Angelo Buono Jr. Biography & Crimes – Murderpedia
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A missing child returns under suspiciously perfect circumstances, sparking a decades-long battle over identity and truth.
This episode traces the disappearance and reappearance of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, the contradictions that muddied the investigation, and the families pulled into the fallout. Through contested identifications, clashing testimonies, and the revelation of a century-late DNA test, we explore how a single child’s return became one of America’s most enduring mysteries.
Topics include
The Swayze Lake disappearance
Conflicting newspaper accounts
Disputed identifications
The Anderson and Walters family claims
The DNA evidence that reshaped the case
Resources and Further Reading
A Case for Solomon – by Tal McThenia & Margaret Dunbar Cutright
The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar – This American Life
The Strange Case of Bobby Dunbar – Country Roads Magazine
Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar - Wikipedia
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A neonatal unit descends into crisis as accusations of murder, medical error, and systemic failure collide around nurse Lucy Letby.
This episode examines the events inside the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit, where unexplained collapses and conflicting evidence fuelled one of the NHS’s most divisive scandals. We explore the debates over air embolisms, ventilator failures, and hospital negligence while asking whether this tragedy points to deliberate harm or a system buckling under pressure.
Topics include
The Countess of Chester neonatal incidents
Conflicting medical interpretations
Air-embolism and ventilator-error debates
Allegations of hospital negligence
Questions around possible miscarriage of justice
Resources and Further Reading
The Nurse Who Hated Babies, 2023 – Channel 4
Lucy Letby – Wikipedia
The Thirlwall Inquiry – “The Thirlwall Inquiry
Lucy Letby International Expert Panel Press Conference - Youtube
Three bosses at Letby hospital arrested for ‘manslaughter – Press Reader
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A bitter rivalry spirals out of control as two palaeontologists race to outdo each other and rewrite the story of the dinosaurs.
This episode explores the Bone Wars, the feud between Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh that pushed American palaeontology to new heights and embarrassing lows. From sabotage and rivalry to genuine scientific breakthroughs, we trace how their obsession uncovered extraordinary fossils while nearly destroying their reputations.
Topics include
The Cope and Marsh rivalry
Sabotage within early palaeontology
Landmark dinosaur discoveries
Scientific mistakes and rushed publications
The long-term impact on dinosaur research
Resources and Further Reading
The Bone Wars - Wikipedia
The Bone Wars That Made Dinosaurs So Popular – I Know Dino (Podcast)
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A man is found dead in a locked hotel room with no signs of a struggle, leaving investigators with a mystery that makes no sense.
This episode follows the case of Greg Flanagan, whose death in Room 348 seemed straightforward until private investigator Ken Brennan uncovered evidence hiding in plain sight. We trace the overlooked clues, the chain of small mistakes that derailed the initial inquiry, and the reasoning that finally revealed what happened inside that locked room.
Topics include
The discovery in Room 348
Early investigative missteps
Key forensic details
Ken Brennan’s reconstruction of events
How the true cause of death was uncovered
Resources and Further Reading
Body in room 348 - Vanity Fair
Body in room 348 - People
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A quiz show champion reaches the million-pound question, only for suspicious coughs to spark a scandal that grips the nation.
This episode revisits the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire coughing scandal, tracing how Charles Ingram, his wife Diana, and Tecwen Whittock became the centre of a media storm and courtroom battle. We explore the evidence, the trial, the role of Chris Tarrant, and the twists that inspired ITV’s Quiz, all while asking whether the Coughing Major was truly guilty.
Topics include
The night of the alleged coughing
Charles and Diana Ingram’s involvement
Tecwen Whittock and studio dynamics
Key trial evidence and testimony
The cultural legacy of ITV’s Quiz
Resources and Further Reading
Charles Ingram Fraud Scandal Footage - YouTube
Charles Ingram - Wikipedia
Quiz Miniseries 2020 – by ITV/AMC
Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major – by Bob Woffinden & James Plaskett
Reasonable doubt: was ‘the Coughing Major’ innocent? – James Plaskett
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A failed explosion beneath Parliament ignites a chain of treason, torture, and myth-making that still echoes every Bonfire Night.
This episode traces the real story of Guy Fawkes, from Robert Catesby’s radical plot to the brutal aftermath that shaped Britain’s most famous annual ritual. We explore whether Fawkes was the mastermind or the perfect scapegoat, and how a botched act of rebellion became a national night of fire, memory, and political symbolism.
Topics include
The Gunpowder Plot’s origins
Guy Fawkes’s role and interrogation
Robert Catesby’s leadership
King James I’s response
The making of Bonfire Night tradition
Resources and Further Reading
The Gunpowder Plot - Wikipedia
The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605 – by Antonia Fraser
Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot – Tower of London
Guy Fawkes night - Wikipedia
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A young artist survives unimaginable pain and transforms it into paintings so bold and intimate they redefine what art can be.
This episode explores Frida Kahlo’s turbulent life, from the accident that reshaped her body to the politics, passion, and creative defiance that fuelled her work. We trace her self-portraits, her fractured relationship with Diego Rivera, and the way she turned personal suffering into a visual language that made her an icon of rebellion and self-expression.
Topics include
Frida Kahlo’s life-changing accident
Her most influential self-portraits
Politics, identity, and artistic rebellion
The complexities of her relationship with Diego Rivera
Her legacy from La Casa Azul to global recognition
Resources and Further Reading
Frida (2002) – Directed by Julie Taymor
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo – by Hayden Herrera
Complete Works – Frida Kahlo – Frida Kahlo Foundation
Frida: The Making of an Icon – Exhibition at Tate Modern
Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Topic Suggested by: Samantha Bingley
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland by Aleksey Chistilin
Trailer Music: Stealy Move by Soundroll
Community & Calls to Action
Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
Follow us on Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
Visit us at: TheCompendiumPodcast.com
️ Early access episodes: Patreon
Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favorite takeaway.
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A luxury music festival in the Bahamas collapses into chaos, leaving celebrity hype, empty promises, and bewildered guests in its wake.
This episode unpacks the rise and ruin of Fyre Festival, from Billy McFarland’s glossy vision of a VIP paradise to the cascading failures that exposed a web of lies. We follow the influencers, the investors, the infamous cheese sandwich, and the fallout that turned a marketing fantasy into a modern lesson in greed and delusion.
Topics include
Billy McFarland’s festival concept
Celebrity influencer promotion
Logistics failures in the Bahamas
Financial misconduct and Ponzi scheme tactics
The aftermath and McFarland’s consequences
Resources and Further Reading
Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019) – by Chris Smith
Fyre Festival – Wikipedia
Hype: Inside the Fyre Festival and the Golden Age of Grift – by Gabrielle Bluestone
Billy McFarland – Wikipedia
Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.


























