
The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things is a weekly documentary-style podcast about strange true stories, true crime, dark history, scandals, mysteries and remarkable people.
Why listen to three podcasts when you can have it all in one? Hosted by Kyle Risi and Adam Cox, each episode takes one fascinating real-life story and gives you the full thing: 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 celebrity scandals, survival stories, cults, frauds and real-life mysteries, The Compendium is smart, funny, curious and thoroughly researched — made for listeners who want the whole story in one satisfying listen, without a ten-part homework assignment.
New episodes weekly. Step inside the circus tent.
Before Ted Kaczynski was a name on the news, the Unabomber was an anonymous figure who could vanish for years and return with a more lethal device. Part One follows the hunt from the first 1978 package bomb to the manifesto that finally made his anon...
Ted Kaczynski stayed hidden for 17 years, but the manifesto he believed would justify his crimes ultimately revealed him. Part Two follows the man behind the Unabomber from Harvard and the Montana wilderness to his arrest, legal battle and guilty ple...
Aileen Wuornos admitted killing seven men, but spent years changing the explanation for why she did it. Behind the woman portrayed in Monster lies a complicated story of trauma, murder, contradictory confessions and a first killing that remains centr...
In 1892, two people were hacked to death in a respectable Massachusetts home, and the only real suspect walked free after a trial that still divides opinion. Kyle and Adam dig into the evidence, the myths, the rhyme that got the numbers wrong, and th...
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...
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 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, ...
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 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.
Bob Lazar claimed he worked at Area 51’s hidden S-4 facility reverse-engineering alien craft powered by Element 115. This episode follows the 1989 George Knapp broadcast, Lazar’s story, the credibility questions and the UFO lore it helped send mainst...