Episodi

  • 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.


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    1 ora e 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 ora e 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.


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    1 ora e 33 min
  • Unabomber Part 2: The Manifesto That Exposed Ted Kaczynski

    Unabomber Part 2: The Manifesto That Exposed Ted Kaczynski
    Sep 26 2026
    For 17 years, the Unabomber hid behind handmade bombs, false clues and the initials F.C. Then his need to explain himself gave the FBI the break it had been waiting for. Part Two turns from the bombing campaign to Ted Kaczynski himself. We trace the gifted, isolated child who entered Harvard at 16, the controversial psychological study led by Henry Murray, the anti-technology ideas that hardened into violent ideology, and the contradictions of his off-grid life in a tiny Montana cabin. When Industrial Society and Its Future was published, Ted’s brother David recognised something chilling in its language. What followed was a covert investigation, an arrest built around a Forest Service ruse, a cabin packed with evidence and a legal battle over whether any of it could be used. Even with the case closing around him, Kaczynski fought the defence designed to save his life because it threatened the one thing he still wanted the world to respect: his ideas. Topics Included Ted Kaczynski’s gifted but socially isolated childhoodHenry Murray’s controversial Harvard psychology studyThe private crisis Kaczynski called a turning point in his lifeJacques Ellul and the roots of Kaczynski’s anti-technology ideologyThe reality of living off-grid in the Montana cabinThe manifesto and the linguistic clues that exposed himDavid Kaczynski’s decision to contact the FBIThe search warrant, mental-health dispute and guilty plea Resources and Further Reading Unabomber case history — FBI case archive and device timelineThe Unabomber Case 25 Years Later — FBI account of the linguistic investigationTheodore Kaczynski Indicted in Sacramento — US Department of Justice indictment summaryUnabomber Cabin — FBI artefact history and cabin evidenceUnited States v. Kaczynski, 239 F.3d 1108 — Ninth Circuit opinion on the plea and self-representation disputeThe Ted Kaczynski Papers: FBI Files and Photographs — University of Michigan Library archive guideHarvard and the Making of the Unabomber — Alston Chase’s archival investigationResponses to Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber — participant and scholarly challenges to Chase’s interpretationTed Kaczynski dies in federal prison at 81 — Associated Press biography and case overview 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 ora e 12 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.
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    1 ora e 8 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.


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    1 ora e 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.
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    1 ora e 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.
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    1 ora e 6 min