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The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

De : 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 Sciences sociales
Épisodes
  • Salem Witch Trials: The Dark History of America's Deadliest Witch Hunt

    Salem Witch Trials: The Dark History of America's Deadliest Witch Hunt
    Oct 27 2026

    In 1692, an enslaved woman named Tituba told a Salem courtroom that the Devil had come to her and bid her serve him. Her confession lit the fuse that would become known as the infamous Salem witch trials, the deadliest witch hunt in American history.

    Within months, more than a third of Salem Village had been accused, imprisoned and were awaiting trial. Nineteen people were hanged. One man was pressed to death under stones for refusing to plead. And a four-year-old girl sat in custom-made shackles while her accusers watched.
    But this is not really a story about witches. It is a story about mass hysteria, and how a Puritan community primed by centuries of European witch hunting, religious paranoia and moral surveillance convinced itself to kill its own neighbours on the strength of spectral evidence: testimony that someone's ghost attacked you in the night.
    We trace the strange true story from Cotton Mather's witchcraft playbook to the witch cake, the Devil's book, the confessions that saved lives, and the moment the accusations reached the governor's wife and the whole thing collapsed. Plus the surprising link between Salem and our home town of Norwich.

    Topics Included
    • what caused the Salem witch trials
    • Tituba's confession and why it changed everything
    • spectral evidence and why no alibi could save you
    • the witch cake ritual and the first three accused
    • the arrest of four-year-old Dorothy Good
    • Giles Corey's death by pressing and his final strategy
    • how the accusations reached the governor's wife and ended the trials
    • the 330-year fight to clear every victim's name
    • the Norwich connection to Bridget Bishop
    Resources and Further Reading
    • Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions - Cotton Mather, 1689,
    • Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, Massachusetts - Memorial site opened 1992
    • Salem witch trials - Encyclopaedia Britannica
    • The last Salem witch has been exonerated - CNN

    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 h et 28 min
  • The Aberfan Disaster: The Day the Mountain Came Down

    The Aberfan Disaster: The Day the Mountain Came Down
    Oct 20 2026
    On the last morning before half term, 240 children walked into Pantglas Junior School beneath a mountain of coal waste. Minutes after lessons began, Tip 7 collapsed above Aberfan, sending liquefied spoil through homes and classrooms and killing 116 children and 28 adults. But the Aberfan disaster did not begin with the slide, and it did not end when the rescue stopped. The warning signs had been there: natural springs beneath the tip, earlier slips on the mountainside and concerns that failed to produce action. The tribunal later placed responsibility on the National Coal Board and concluded that the disaster could and should have been prevented. Told through the experiences of survivors including Phil Thomas, Karen Thomas, Jeff Edwards and Gerald Tarr, this is a story of rescue, grief, institutional failure and the lives shaped by what happened on 21 October 1966. It also follows the fight to remove the remaining tips, the controversy surrounding the disaster fund and the long silence that made healing even harder. Topics Included The final morning at Pantglas Junior SchoolWhy water beneath Tip 7 triggered the collapseThe warnings and earlier slides on Mynydd MerthyrThe children and teachers trapped inside the schoolThe rescue effort and its system of whistles and silenceThe tribunal's findings against the National Coal BoardThe compensation and disaster-fund controversiesThe lasting trauma carried by survivors and families Resources The Aberfan Tribunal — Glamorgan ArchivesAberfan Disaster 1966 — National Library of Wales digital archiveThe Aberfan Disaster, 1966 — British Geological Survey case studyAberfan Disaster: Lessons Learned — Institution of Civil Engineers explainerAberfan: No End of a Lesson — History & Policy research paperAberfan Disaster Debate, 26 October 1967 — UK Parliament HansardDeath of a Black Mountain: How the Aberfan Disaster Unfolded — HistoryExtra survivor historyThe Psychological Effects of the Aberfan Disaster — 33-year follow-up studyGuidance to the Disused Tips Authority for Wales — Welsh Government consultationThis Year Marks the 60th Anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster — Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council 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 h et 20 min
  • 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 h et 33 min
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