Épisodes

  • 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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 33 min
  • 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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 9 min
  • 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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 17 min
  • The Tromp Family Mystery: The Australian Family Who Fled Their Own Minds

    The Tromp Family Mystery: The Australian Family Who Fled Their Own Minds
    Sep 8 2026

    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 fully explain.

    Over the following week, the family scattered across two states. One son, Mitchell, abandoned the journey and caught a train home. Two daughters, Riana and Ella, stole a car near the Jenolan Caves before reporting their own parents missing more than 100 miles away. Riana was later found catatonic in the back of a stranger's pickup truck. Their mother, Jacoba, turned up wandering the streets of Yass, while their father, Mark, disappeared into bushland.

    Today, we retrace the family's bizarre road trip, examine the many theories—from contaminated water and cults to supernatural cave spirits—and explore the explanation psychologists keep returning to: “folie à deux”, the rare condition in which one person's delusions spread to those closest to them. It's a remarkable true story about just how fragile—and contagious—the human mind can be.

    Topics Included
    • what happened in the Tromp family disappearance
    • the empty farm, the abandoned passports and the missing Peugeot
    • the frantic drive north and the phone thrown from the window
    • the Jenolan Caves and the folklore surrounding them
    • why the family scattered one by one across two states
    • Riana found catatonic in a stranger's pickup
    • the theories, from farm chemicals to cults to cave spirits
    • folie à deux and the science of shared psychosis
    • the Eriksson twins and other real cases of shared delusion
    • how the Tromps were found and what they said afterwards
    Resources and Further Reading
    • Riana Tromp speaks about bizarre roadtrip in first interview - news.com.au
    • Transcript of Mitchell and Ella Tromp speaking to the media on Sunday - The Age
    • Folie à deux - Wikipedia
    • Ursula and Sabina Eriksson - Wikipedia
    • Tromp family - The Daily Telegraph

    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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 6 min
  • MKUltra: The Dark History of CIA Mind Control and Frank Olson

    MKUltra: The Dark History of CIA Mind Control and Frank Olson
    Sep 1 2026

    A man falls from a New York hotel window. The CIA calls it suicide. Decades later, the story starts to look much darker.

    MKUltra is one of the most disturbing secret programmes in CIA history: a Cold War attempt to find out whether drugs, hypnosis, interrogation, sensory manipulation, and psychological pressure could break the human mind and reshape it. At the centre is Frank Olson, a biological warfare scientist who was secretly dosed with LSD at a CIA retreat and died days later after falling from Room 1018A of the Hotel Statler.

    But Olson’s death is only one part of the story. This dark history moves from Nazi research and Operation Paperclip to Project Bluebird, Project Artichoke, Sidney Gottlieb’s LSD experiments, Donald Ewen Cameron’s psychic driving, Operation Midnight Climax, destroyed records, congressional hearings, and the questions that still refuse to die.

    Because MKUltra was not just about mind control. It was about secrecy, power, and what governments are willing to do when “national security” becomes the magic phrase that makes human rights disappear.

    Topics Include

    • what MKUltra was and why the CIA created it
    • Frank Olson’s death at the Hotel Statler
    • Cold War brainwashing fears and Project Bluebird
    • Project Artichoke and CIA interrogation experiments
    • Sidney Gottlieb and CIA LSD testing
    • Donald Ewen Cameron and psychic driving
    • Operation Midnight Climax
    • destroyed MKUltra records and surviving financial files
    • Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee revelations
    • the unresolved questions around modern influence and control
    Resources and Further Reading
    1. Project MKULTRA, Research in Behavioral Modification - U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
    2. MKUltra - Wikipedia
    3. Operation Paperclip - Wikipedia
    4. Sidney Gottlieb Testimony - National Security Archive
    5. DNI Denies CIA Raided Tulsi Gabbard’s Office - Newsweek
    6. James E. Erdman III Testimony - Homeland security

    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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 32 min
  • 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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 8 min
  • Genie Wiley: Dark History of the Child Hidden From the Whole World

    Genie Wiley: Dark History of the Child Hidden From the Whole World
    Jul 14 2026

    Genie Wiley was locked away for thirteen years, but rescue was only the beginning of one of psychology’s most haunting cases.

    This episode follows the story of Genie Wiley, a child kept in near-total isolation, deprived of language, movement, comfort and the outside world until she was discovered at thirteen. Her case became a landmark in debates around language acquisition, childhood development and the critical period hypothesis — but behind the research papers was a vulnerable girl who needed care, safety and time.

    We trace Genie Wiley’s childhood isolation and abuse, the Los Angeles welfare office discovery, and the scientists, linguists, psychologists and caregivers who became involved after her rescue. The case raises a deeply uncomfortable question: when does helping a child become studying her? And when does science start taking more than it gives?

    This is dark history, hidden histories and one of those strange true stories where the facts are already devastating enough. For listeners interested in psychology case studies, child neglect, developmental psychology, scientific ethics and what really happened after the headlines, Genie Wiley’s story remains as heartbreaking as it is important.

    Topics Include

    • Genie Wiley’s childhood isolation and abuse
    • The Los Angeles welfare office discovery
    • The critical period hypothesis
    • Language acquisition after childhood deprivation
    • The scientists and caregivers who studied Genie
    • The ethical line between care and research
    Resources and Further Reading
    • Genie Wiley - Wikipedia
    • The Mockingbird Don't Sing - IMDB
    • Starved, tortured, forgotten: - The Guardian
    • Wild Child Speechless After Tortured Life - ABC News
    • Genie - Encyclopedia Britanica
    • The Development of Language in Genie - UCLA Linguistics PDF

    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.
    Afficher plus Afficher moins
    1 h et 25 min