Kyle RisiThe RingmasterDoes the research.
The Compendium Podcast
An
assembly
of
fascinating
things.
A weekly variety podcast exploring stories from the darker corners of true crime, historical events and incredible people.
One complete story in around an hour, researched properly, told from beginning to end, and packed with the details you’ll want to tell somebody else later.
True Crime · History · Incredible People
NEW THIS WEEK
Nasubi: The Real Life Truman Show
An aspiring comedian enters a sweepstakes challenge and unknowingly becomes one of Japan’s biggest television stars. Nasubi’s 15-month ordeal reveals how an unlocked door, an unseen audience and a desperate hope for fame can turn entertainment into e...
New Here
Start somewhere good.
Three listener favourites. No commitment ceremony required.
Marilyn Monroe: Dark History of How Hollywood Built and Broke an Icon
The story of Marilyn Monroe began unassumingly, with a shy, anxious girl known simply as Norma Jean. Out of a brutal childhood, Hollywood constructed the blonde bombshell: a persona shaped by damage, fame, and public fantasy, transforming Norma Jean ...
McMillions: The McDonald’s Monopoly Frauds and Scams Story Explained in Full
A decade-long McDonald’s Monopoly Scam turns “random winners” into a pattern, and a single stolen game piece into a nationwide FBI operation with a name that sounds like a pub quiz answer.
Aileen Wuornos: What Really Happened to America’s Notorious Female Serial Killer
A life shaped by trauma, violence, and survival culminates in a series of murders that stun America. This episode examines the making of Aileen Wuornos and the boundary between victimhood and brutality.
Your hosts
Meet the freaks responsible.
Adam CoxThe WildcardHears it for the first time.
One brings the story. One brings the reactions.
Nobody brings adequate supervision.
LATEST EPISODES
The Tromp Family Mystery: The Australian Family Who Fled Their Own Minds
In 2016, five members of the Tromp family fled their farm in a single car, leaving behind their passports, credit cards and mobile phones. Why they fled remains one of Australia's greatest modern mysteries—a mystery that not even the Tromp family can...
MKUltra: The Dark History of CIA Mind Control and Frank Olson
MKUltra was the CIA’s secret Cold War programme built around drugs, hypnosis, interrogation, and the dream of controlling the human mind. This episode follows Frank Olson, LSD testing, Operation Midnight Climax, Donald Ewen Cameron, destroyed files, ...
Lucy Letby: The Evidence, the NHS Failures, and the Question That Won’t Go Away
The Lucy Letby case begins inside a neonatal unit where the most vulnerable babies in the hospital were supposed to be receiving round-the-clock care. When deaths and sudden collapses rose sharply, consultants at the Countess of Chester Hospital bega...
Michael Jackson: From Gary, Indiana to the Biggest Star Alive
Long before the moonwalk and the stadiums, Michael Jackson was one of ten children crammed into a small house on Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana. His father, Joe, a steelworker with stalled musical ambitions of his own, recognised something extraordi...
Aileen Wuornos: The Female Serial Killer Who Said It Was Self Defense
Aileen Wuornos is remembered as one of the most notorious female serial killers in American history, the woman Charlize Theron played in Monster and the press dubbed the Damsel of Death. The truth underneath that label is much harder to sit with. She...
Fyre Festival: Billy McFarland and the Greatest Party That Never Happened
Fyre Festival promised the most exclusive party on earth: supermodels, private jets and music on a Bahamian island. What it delivered was rain-soaked tents, no water, and a cheese sandwich that became one of the internet's most infamous images.
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield and the Real Horror Behind the Movies
Ed Gein, the so-called Butcher of Plainfield, is remembered as one of America's most notorious killers, yet only two of his murders were ever confirmed. This is the true story of the quiet Wisconsin handyman, the mother who shaped him, and the horror...
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 needed a memo to have lunch with her own husband. This is Princess Diana before the icon, the lonely childhood, the strange chaperoned courtship, and a royal marriage tha...
Genie Wiley: Dark History of the Child Hidden From the Whole World
Genie Wiley was the child hidden from the world for thirteen years before her rescue became a test case for language, trauma, and the ethics of scientific research. This episode follows her abuse, rehabilitation, and the systems that failed her after...
Somerton Man: The Mystery Given a Name After 70 Years
Somerton Man is one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries: an unidentified body found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide in 1948, a hidden scrap of paper reading “Tamám Shud”, and a trail of clues that only got stranger.
“The Compendium has done a good job establishing itself among a growing number of nerdy British buddy podcasts.”
— RollingStone
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— Larura M
“I binged the entire back catalogue in a week. Completely hooked from the first episode.”
— Richard Cox ·
“Brilliantly researched and genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. A rare combination.”
— Sarah Flaxman
“The only podcast my whole family agrees on. Endlessly interesting every single week.”
— Jill
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