The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

Strange True Stories with Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
  • 4.8 (121)
  • Documentary
  • Updated Weekly

Love strange true stories, true crime, dark history and real-life mysteries, but not ten-part series that turn listening into homework? The Compendium is a weekly documentary-style podcast that gives you one complete, thoroughly researched story from beginning to end in a single listen. Each week, Kyle Risi takes co-host Adam Cox inside one remarkable real-life story that Adam has not heard before. As Adam asks the questions you are thinking, Kyle unpacks the context, the characters, the chaos, the terrible decisions and the tiny details that make you say, “Wait… how did this actually happen?” From infamous crimes and forgotten history to cults, frauds, survival stories, celebrity scandals and remarkable people, the subject changes every week.

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  1. 1d ago

    Lucy Letby: The Evidence, the NHS Failures, and the Question That Won’t Go Away

    Lucy Letby was convicted as Britain’s most prolific child serial killer, but the case has never stopped raising questions.  At the Countess of Chester Hospital, a sudden rise in neonatal deaths and collapses led consultants to suspect a young nurse who seemed impossibly ordinary. The prosecution said the pattern was clear: insulin poisoning, alleged air embolisms, overfeeding, suspicious notes, Facebook searches, hospital documents under her bed, and one nurse present again and again.  But this Lucy Letby case does not end neatly at conviction. We look at the medical evidence, the shift chart, the NHS failures, the role of expert testimony, and the later claims from specialists who argue that natural causes or poor care may explain far more than the trial allowed.  This is British true crime at its most uncomfortable: if Lucy Letby is guilty, a hospital failed to stop her. If she is innocent, the failure is even harder to face.    Topics Included  lucy letby and the countess of chester hospital the rise in neonatal deaths and unexplained collapses the insulin evidence involving baby f and baby l air embolism, overfeeding, and medical evidence the shift chart used against lucy letby hospital management and nhs safeguarding failures the handwritten notes and hospital documents found at her home why some experts question the conviction the criminal cases review commission and possible appeal questions the emotional impact on the babies’ families 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 Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to Action Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonShare 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.

    Lucy Letby: The Evidence, the NHS Failures, and the Question That Won’t Go Away

  2. Aug 18

    Michael Jackson: From Gary, Indiana to the Biggest Star Alive

    A boy from a two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana becomes the most famous human being alive. But the same childhood that built Michael Jackson may also be the thing that began to break him.  In Part 1 of this two-part story, we go back to the very start: a steelworker father with stalled musical dreams, a houseful of children, and rehearsals enforced with belts and fear.  From talent-show wins to a Motown deal, from the Jackson 5 to "I Want You Back" topping the charts, Michael's rise is explosive, and so is the pressure. We follow the road from disco and Off the Wall to the record-shattering Thriller, the moonwalk that stopped a room, the Pepsi fire that left lasting damage, the billion-dollar music catalogue, and the appearance that kept changing under the world's gaze.  By the time he buys Neverland and the first allegation surfaces, the King of Pop's story has already turned. Music history, family, fame, and the cost of all three.    Topics Included  How a boy from Gary, Indiana became the King of Pop Joe Jackson's brutal rehearsals and the abuse allegations within the family The real story of who discovered the Jackson 5 The Motown years and four consecutive number-one hits Off the Wall, Thriller, and the moonwalk at Motown 25 The 1984 Pepsi commercial fire and the start of a painkiller dependency Buying the Beatles catalogue and the billion-dollar fallout with Paul McCartney Why Michael Jackson's appearance changed, including vitiligo and surgery Neverland Ranch and the first allegation that changed everything Resources and Further Reading  Michael Jackson - Encyclopaedia Britannica The Jackson 5 - Motown Museum Michael Jackson - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Pepsi fire left Michael Jackson in pain - Los Angeles Times Host & Show Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to Action Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonShare 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.

    Michael Jackson: From Gary, Indiana to the Biggest Star Alive

  3. Aug 14 • Subscribers Only

    Nasubi: The Real Life Truman Show

    Nasubi thought he had agreed to a private television challenge. What he didn’t know was that millions of people were already watching him, alone, hungry and completely naked. In 1998, the aspiring comedian was taken to a bare Tokyo apartment and told he had to survive entirely on prizes won through mail-in sweepstakes. No food. No clothes. No running total. To finish A Life in Prizes, he had to win goods worth one million yen. And while the door to the apartment was technically unlocked, what was keeping Nasubi hostage was the fact producers had taken his cloths and the belief that leaving would destroy his only chance at a television career. As the weeks became months, producers broadcast his most private and vulnerable moments, They published his diary and more shockingly they kept moving the finish line. The wild part is Nasubi had no idea millions of people were watching. all while he remained unaware that he was famous. This is the story of Japan’s so-called real-life Truman Show, the ethics of early reality television, and how Nasubi rebuilt a life after an experience that left him struggling to trust other people. Topics Included How Nasubi was selected for A Life in Prizes Surviving entirely through mail-in sweepstakes The weekly broadcasts and 24-hour livestream Why an unlocked door did not necessarily make Nasubi free Toshio Tsuchiya and the constantly moving finish line The live studio reveal and “My house fell down” Nasubi’s psychological recovery after the programme Fukushima, disaster relief and Mount Everest

    Nasubi: The Real Life Truman Show

  4. Aug 11

    Aileen Wuornos: The Female Serial Killer Who Said It Was Self Defense

    Aileen Wuornos stood on the shoulder of a Florida highway with a pistol in her bag and a partner at home demanding rent money. Within a year, seven men were dead. She said it started as self defense, that her first client raped her and she fought back. The press called her the Damsel of Death and America's first female serial killer. But was she a victim striking back after a lifetime of abuse, or a killer who got a taste for it and did the rest for money?  This is the story of Aileen Wuornos, told from a childhood of abandonment, beatings, and exploitation through to the Florida killings, her relationship with Tyria Moore, the thumbprint that gave her away, and the trial that sent her to death row. We follow the murder of Richard Mallory, the confession Moore was paid to draw out of her, and the question that has never gone away: how much of Aileen's story is true, and how much was survival, performance, or both? A hard, sad, genuinely complicated true crime story where the word victim applies to more than one side.    Topics Included  who aileen wuornos was and how she became a killer her childhood of abuse, abandonment, and the people who raised her the murder of richard mallory and the self defense claim how her years of sex work on florida's highways shaped the case her relationship with tyria moore and the immunity deal the thumbprint and pawned camera that led to her arrest the trial, the withheld evidence, and the death sentence the victim or villain debate at the heart of the case her final years on death row and her 2002 execution Resources and Further Reading  Aileen Wuornos – Wikipedia Monster (2003) – directed by Patty Jenkins Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003) – directed by Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill Monster: My True Story - by Aileen Wuornos & Christopher Berry-Dee Host & Show Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to Action Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonShare 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.

    Aileen Wuornos: The Female Serial Killer Who Said It Was Self Defense

  5. Aug 4

    Fyre Festival: Billy McFarland and the Greatest Party That Never Happened

    A single cheese sandwich helped bring down a multimillion dollar brand. Fyre Festival was sold as the most exclusive party on earth: supermodels, private jets, villas and live music on an island once linked to Pablo Escobar. What guests actually found was rain-soaked disaster-relief tents, no running water and assemble-your-own sandwiches in styrofoam boxes.  This is the story of Billy McFarland, the young entrepreneur who scammed his way to the top long before Fyre, through a fake-exclusive members club called Magnises and a string of schemes that should have been red flags years earlier. Alongside the rapper Ja Rule, he sold 95% of the tickets to a festival that had no infrastructure, no finalised acts and only eight weeks to build paradise from rubble.  What unfolds is one of the great strange true stories of the influencer age: a glossy con powered by orange squares on Instagram, warnings nobody listened to, and a collapse the whole world watched in real time. Part disaster, part scam, entirely unbelievable.    Topics Included  who Billy McFarland was and the scams that came before Fyre the Magnises members club and the trashed Manhattan townhouse how Ja Rule and Fyre Media came together the influencer marketing campaign and the orange tile stunt selling 95% of tickets with no infrastructure in place switching islands eight weeks before the festival the arrival day collapse and the disaster-relief tents the cheese sandwich that became the symbol of the whole failure how social media exposed the festival live 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 Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to Action Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonShare 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.

    Fyre Festival: Billy McFarland and the Greatest Party That Never Happened

  6. Jul 28

    Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield and the Real Horror Behind the Movies

    A headless body hung in a Wisconsin barn, strung up like a deer carcass. That was what police found when the Ed Gein case broke open on the first day of hunting season in 1957, and it was only the beginning of what waited inside his farmhouse. This is the true story of Ed Gein, the quiet, polite handyman from Plainfield, Wisconsin, who became known as the Butcher of Plainfield and inspired some of the most terrifying characters in film history. We trace how a domineering, deeply religious mother named Augusta shaped a lonely boy who never broke free, and how that obsession curdled into something monstrous after her death. You’ll hear what really happened to shopkeeper Bernice Warden and tavern owner Mary Hogan, what investigators discovered among the rubbish and rot inside his home, and the detail most people get wrong: Gein only ever confirmed two murders. The rest of his grim collection, he said, came from graves he had robbed. We also untangle how one man’s life fed three wildly different films; Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and  The Silence of the Lambs, and ask the uncomfortable question of how much sympathy a story like this can hold. A true crime story about isolation, control and the real horror behind Hollywood’s nightmares. Topics included The discovery in the barn on the first day of hunting season The murder of Bernice Warden and the antifreeze receipt that gave Gein away Augusta Gein and a childhood built on isolation and religious fear The suspicious death of Ed’s brother Henry What police found inside the farmhouse The confirmed victims versus the grave robbing Mary Hogan and the women who resembled his mother The schizophrenia diagnosis and a lifetime in an institution How Gein inspired Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill Whether the story deserves any sympathy at all Resources and Further Reading Ed Gein - Wikipedia Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original ‘Psycho’ – by Harold Schechter "Monster, The Ed Gien Story (2025) - Netflix Host & Show Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to Action Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonShare 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.

    Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield and the Real Horror Behind the Movies

  7. Jul 21

    Princess Diana Part 1: The Royal Romance That Was Over Before It Began

    Princess Diana thought she was marrying into a fairytale. By the honeymoon, she had to send a memo just to have lunch with her own husband. This is Princess Diana before the icon, before the cameras, before the People's Princess the world thought it knew.  In Part 1 of our Princess Diana trilogy, we go right back to the beginning: a wealthy but emotionally cold childhood, parents locked in a bitter divorce, and a young Diana Spencer who grew up convinced she was never quite good enough.  We follow her into the strangest courtship imaginable, a handful of heavily chaperoned dates with Prince Charles, a royal “audition” she didn't know she was failing or passing, and an engagement agreed after the couple had met barely a dozen times.  From the first day, the cracks are there. The press hounds her relentlessly, the palace offers no support, and Camilla Parker Bowles never quite disappears. Behind the gloss of the 1981 royal wedding watched by 750 million people sits a lonely teenager, struggling with bulimia and the slow, dawning realisation that this was never going to be the love story she imagined.  A story of family, fame, royal scandals and the human cost of becoming a symbol.  This is where it all begins. Part 1 of 3.    Topics Include  Diana's emotionally cold childhood and her parents' bitter divorce The custody battle and the sense that she was a disappointment Diana's extraordinary, instinctive gift for empathy How Charles and Diana actually met — through her older sister Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles before the marriage The royal “audition” and the search for a suitable bride The whirlwind engagement after barely a dozen meetings The 1981 royal wedding and its hidden tensions Loneliness, bulimia and royal protocol on the honeymoon The discovery that reignited the Camilla affair Resources and Further Reading  Diana’s childhood and family background - Britannica Diana’s struggles with bulimia and mental health - Vogue Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words - by Andre Morton The Diana Chronicles - by Tina Brown Host & Show Info Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to Action Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonShare 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.

    Princess Diana Part 1: The Royal Romance That Was Over Before It Began

  8. Jul 14 ·  Bonus • Subscribers Only

    Ruth Ellis: The Last Woman Hanged in Britain

    Ruth Ellis was the last woman hanged in Britain, but the six shots she fired outside a Hampstead pub were only the final act of a life shaped by violence, class and men who controlled the choices around her. On Easter Sunday 1955, the 28-year-old nightclub manager shot racing driver David Blakely in front of witnesses. She confessed, told the Old Bailey that she had intended to kill him and was convicted in minutes. Yet behind that clean legal answer sat years of domestic abuse, a miscarriage, a trial with no modern defence of diminished responsibility and another man whose possible role would remain disputed for decades. The Ruth Ellis case became a defining story in British true crime and the debate over capital punishment. In July 2026, King Charles III granted her a posthumous conditional pardon, replacing the death sentence with life imprisonment without overturning her conviction. Seventy-one years after the hanging, the question is no longer whether Ruth pulled the trigger. It is whether Britain ever understood what brought her to that pavement, or who may have helped put the gun in her hand. Topics Included Ruth Ellis’s life in post-war London’s nightclub scene Her violent relationship with racing driver David Blakely The Easter Sunday shooting outside The Magdala in Hampstead Ruth’s confession and rapid murder trial at the Old Bailey Desmond Cussen and the disputed origin of the murder weapon Why domestic abuse did not provide an effective defence in 1955 The case’s place in Britain’s debate over capital punishment The meaning of Ruth Ellis’s 2026 conditional pardon

    Ruth Ellis: The Last Woman Hanged in Britain
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About

Love strange true stories, true crime, dark history and real-life mysteries, but not ten-part series that turn listening into homework? The Compendium is a weekly documentary-style podcast that gives you one complete, thoroughly researched story from beginning to end in a single listen. Each week, Kyle Risi takes co-host Adam Cox inside one remarkable real-life story that Adam has not heard before. As Adam asks the questions you are thinking, Kyle unpacks the context, the characters, the chaos, the terrible decisions and the tiny details that make you say, “Wait… how did this actually happen?” From infamous crimes and forgotten history to cults, frauds, survival stories, celebrity scandals and remarkable people, the subject changes every week.

Information

  • Creator
    Strange True Stories with Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    170
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things
  • Show Website
    The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things
  • Provider
    Kyle Risi

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