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The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

Written by: Strange True Stories with Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
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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.© 2025 The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things Social Sciences True Crime World
Episodes
  • Facebook's Social Reckoning: Whistleblowers Frances Haugen & Sarah Wynn-Williams

    Facebook's Social Reckoning: Whistleblowers Frances Haugen & Sarah Wynn-Williams
    Oct 13 2026

    A trillion-dollar company. Two women who worked inside it, years apart. And the exact same warnings, ignored twice.

    This episode traces Frances Haugen, the Facebook product manager who walked out with a phone full of leaked documents and wiped six billion dollars off the company's share price in a single day, and Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook's former global policy chief, whose tell-all memoir Careless People landed her in emergency arbitration and a gag order so strict she's legally barred from discussing her own book.

    We cover the Instagram research on teenage girls, the Myanmar crisis both women separately flagged, China, Cross-Check, the Capitol riot, and the 2026 courtroom reckoning that's cost Meta over seventeen billion dollars so far.

    One whistleblower built a legal shield before she ever spoke. The other found out, too late, exactly how exposed she'd left herself. Coincidence, or exactly the pattern you'd expect from a company this size?

    Topics Included
    • Frances Haugen's path from Google and Pinterest to Facebook's Civic Integrity team
    • The leaked internal research on Instagram's effect on teenage girls' body image
    • Cross-Check (XCheck) and the rules that didn't apply to Facebook's most powerful users
    • The Capitol riot, the Facebook Files, and Facebook's rebrand to Meta
    • Meta's 2026 courtroom reckoning: Section 230, the New Mexico and Los Angeles verdicts, and the $17.1 billion settlement
    • Sarah Wynn-Williams' six years as Facebook's global policy chief, and the Myanmar and China allegations in her book
    • The arbitration order and gag order that followed her memoir, Careless People
    • Arturo Bejar's testimony, and what happened to Meta's stock price after the settlement
    Resources and Further Reading
    • Frances Haugen — Wikipedia
    • Frances Haugen's Written Testimony – the Senate Commerce Committee
    • Sarah Wynn-Williams — Wikipedia
    • Ex-Meta executive: — CNN
    • Sarah Wynn-Williams accuses Meta of colluding with China — TechCrunch
    • What the Wall Street Journal Got Wrong — Meta's official response

    Host & Show Info

    • Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
    • Editor: Giordanno Bottezini
    • Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland

    Community & Calls to Action

    • Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
    • Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
    • Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
    • Support us: Sign up to Patreon
    • Suggest a Topic: Freaky Register

    Share this episode with a friend! If you enjoyed it, tag us on social media and let us know your favourite takeaway.


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    1 hr and 33 mins
  • Unabomber Part 2: The Manifesto That Exposed Ted Kaczynski

    Unabomber Part 2: The Manifesto That Exposed Ted Kaczynski
    Sep 26 2026
    For 17 years, the Unabomber hid behind handmade bombs, false clues and the initials F.C. Then his need to explain himself gave the FBI the break it had been waiting for. Part Two turns from the bombing campaign to Ted Kaczynski himself. We trace the gifted, isolated child who entered Harvard at 16, the controversial psychological study led by Henry Murray, the anti-technology ideas that hardened into violent ideology, and the contradictions of his off-grid life in a tiny Montana cabin. When Industrial Society and Its Future was published, Ted’s brother David recognised something chilling in its language. What followed was a covert investigation, an arrest built around a Forest Service ruse, a cabin packed with evidence and a legal battle over whether any of it could be used. Even with the case closing around him, Kaczynski fought the defence designed to save his life because it threatened the one thing he still wanted the world to respect: his ideas. Topics Included Ted Kaczynski’s gifted but socially isolated childhoodHenry Murray’s controversial Harvard psychology studyThe private crisis Kaczynski called a turning point in his lifeJacques Ellul and the roots of Kaczynski’s anti-technology ideologyThe reality of living off-grid in the Montana cabinThe manifesto and the linguistic clues that exposed himDavid Kaczynski’s decision to contact the FBIThe search warrant, mental-health dispute and guilty plea Resources and Further Reading Unabomber case history — FBI case archive and device timelineThe Unabomber Case 25 Years Later — FBI account of the linguistic investigationTheodore Kaczynski Indicted in Sacramento — US Department of Justice indictment summaryUnabomber Cabin — FBI artefact history and cabin evidenceUnited States v. Kaczynski, 239 F.3d 1108 — Ninth Circuit opinion on the plea and self-representation disputeThe Ted Kaczynski Papers: FBI Files and Photographs — University of Michigan Library archive guideHarvard and the Making of the Unabomber — Alston Chase’s archival investigationResponses to Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber — participant and scholarly challenges to Chase’s interpretationTed Kaczynski dies in federal prison at 81 — Associated Press biography and case overview Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonSuggest a Topic: Freaky RegisterShare 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.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Unabomber Part 1: The Biggest Manhunt in FBI History

    Unabomber Part 1: The Biggest Manhunt in FBI History
    Sep 26 2026
    In 1978, a brown-paper parcel was found between two cars at a Chicago university. It looked ordinary. The professor named as the sender had never seen it before. Then it exploded. That first device began a 17-year bombing campaign that moved from university campuses to an airliner, computer shops and private homes. Sixteen bombs would kill three people and injure 23, while investigators struggled with devices deliberately built from common materials and a bomber capable of disappearing for years. What the FBI did have was strange: scrap-built components, pieces of wood, the initials F.C., a witness sketch and, eventually, a bomber who decided to start writing. Part One follows the creation of the UNABOM investigation, the long silences between attacks, the deadly return in the 1990s and the extraordinary decision to publish Industrial Society and Its Future. Then, after thousands of bad tips, one lead arrived that pointed towards a name already inside the investigation: Ted Kaczynski. Topics Included The mysterious first package bomb found in Chicago in 1978How the university and airline attacks gave the UNABOM case its nameThe scrap-built bombs, pieces of wood and recurring F.C. signatureThe escalation from serious injuries to the first fatalitiesThe 1987 eyewitness encounter and iconic hooded-man sketchThe Unabomber’s six-year disappearance and sudden returnFreedom Club and the demand to publish Industrial Society and Its FutureThe manifesto publication and the tip that pointed towards Ted Kaczynski Resources and Further Reading Unabomber case history — FBIInside the FBI: The Unabomber Case — FBI podcast and transcriptThe Unabomber Case 25 Years Later — FBIUnabomber Bomb Shrapnel — FBI artifactUnabomber Cabin — FBI artifactThe Profile of a Loner — The Washington PostUnabomber's Elusive Trail — The Washington PostTo Unabomb Victims, A Deeper Mystery — The Washington PostUNABOM Major Case 75 Task Force Report — digitised 1995 BATF, FBI and USPIS task-force reportProject Unabom — Apple Original podcast Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxEditor: Giordanno Bottezini Intro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonSuggest a Topic: Freaky RegisterShare 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.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
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