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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.


    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 33 mins
  • Lizzie Borden: Did She Get Away With Murder?

    Lizzie Borden: Did She Get Away With Murder?
    Sep 22 2026

    In a respectable Massachusetts household in 1892, two people were hacked to death in broad daylight, and nobody in the house heard a thing.

    This episode traces the Borden family from Andrew's rise from nothing to a $10-million-in-today's-money fortune he refused to spend, through the locked doors, the pigeon massacre, and the property dispute that split the household in two. Then: the morning of August 4th, the two-hour gap between the murders, the botched police investigation, the burnt dress, and the trial that put actual human skulls in front of a jury.

    Lizzie Borden walked free. Whether that was justice or a masterclass in reasonable doubt is still argued over more than 130 years later — and we give you the evidence to decide for yourself, including how you can go and spend the night in the room where it happened.

    Topics Included
    • Andrew Borden's fortune, and his refusal to spend a cent of it on his own family
    • The 1891 house robbery and the household's growing paranoia and distrust
    • The pigeon massacre and the Ferry Street property dispute that split the family in two
    • The morning of August 4, 1892, and the unexplained two-hour gap between the murders
    • The Fall River police's botched investigation and their first, wrongful suspect
    • Lizzie's shifting testimony, the burnt dress, and the poison purchase ruled inadmissible
    • The 1893 trial, the skulls brought into court, and the fast acquittal
    • What happened to Lizzie, Emma and Bridget Sullivan afterwards — and what you can actually do at the house today
    Resources and Further Reading
    • Lizzie Borden — Wikipedia
    • Lizzie Borden House — Wikipedia
    • Was Lizzie Borden Guilty? — Britannica
    • Famous Trials: Lizzie Borden
    • Famous Trials: The Inquest
    • The Lizzie Borden Society chronology
    • How Lizzie Borden Got Away With Murder — Smithsonian
    • The Forgotten Borden: Who Was Emma Borden? — Lizzie-Borden.com
    • I Slept in the Murder Room — Fodor's

    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.


    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 9 mins
  • Nasubi: The Real Life Truman Show

    Nasubi: The Real Life Truman Show
    Sep 15 2026
    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 PrizesSurviving entirely through mail-in sweepstakesThe weekly broadcasts and 24-hour livestreamWhy an unlocked door did not necessarily make Nasubi freeToshio Tsuchiya and the constantly moving finish lineThe live studio reveal and “My house fell down”Nasubi’s psychological recovery after the programmeFukushima, disaster relief and Mount Everest Resources and Further Reading The Contestant — Hulu documentary overviewJapanese Reality Star Nasubi Recalls the Traumatic True Story Behind The Contestant — TIME interviewNasubi Explains Why He Didn’t Sue — Decider interviewHuman Spectacle — This American Life transcriptDocumentary Focuses on Man Behind a Cruelly Bizarre Japanese Reality Show — Associated PressWas This the Most Unsettling Reality TV Show Ever? — The GuardianHow The Contestant Director Earned Nasubi’s Trust — Salon interviewFukushima’s Famous Actor and Entertainer, Nasubi — Fukushima and Everest interviewNasubi’s Ask Me Anything — First-person Q&A 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 17 mins
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