The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

Julia Child celebrated household name, started as a wartime OSS desk jockey who later conquered Le Cordon Bleu and American TV - loudly, brilliantly, and without apologising. Starting with Julie & Julia, we follow her late-in-life Paris awakening, the brutal Le Cordon Bleu learning curve, and the obsessive testing that became Mastering the Art of French Cooking. There’s OSS shark repellent, Paul Child’s steady love, and then the moment she turns a TV omelette into a second career. Suddenly it’s The French Chef - and dinner becomes comedy. Topics include Julie & Julia and what the film gets right (Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci) Le Cordon Bleu, French cuisine, and learning late Mastering the Art of French Cooking and why it mattered OSS shark repellent and the strangest pre-chef CV The French Chef, cooking show chaos, and the Dan Aykroyd SNL skit Resources and Further Reading Julia Child - Wikipedia Julie & Julia - by Nora Ephron SNL The French Chef - youtube Shark Repellant Work - cia.gov Julias Kitchen - Smithsonian Museum Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Wikipedia Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

H.H. Holmes built the infamous Murder Castle during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This episode explores the true story behind the disappearances, the fraud, and how one of America’s first serial killers was finally caught. Using false identities, staged scams, and a building designed to confuse and trap, Holmes turned murder into a business model. As victims vanished and his schemes began to collapse, investigators uncovered a case of fraud, deception, and calculated killing that helped turn him into one of the most notorious figures in American crime history. Topics include the design and purpose of the Murder Castle Holmes’ life as Herman Mudgett insurance fraud, false identities, and calculated killings the role of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair how H.H. Holmes was finally caught Resources and Further Reading H.H. Holmes - Wikipedia The Devil in the White City - by Erik Larson American Horror Story: Hotel - Ryan Murphy Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

Biosphere 2 was meant to prove we could build a world from scratch. Instead, it became a fight to keep the air breathable and the story from turning toxic. In 1991, eight people sealed themselves inside a vast Arizona terrarium designed to test whether a closed ecosystem could sustain human life and one day help us survive on Mars. What followed was not just a biosphere experiment under glass, but a slow collision between science, survival, collapsing oxygen levels, and a press narrative determined to call it a joke. This week, we dig into what really happened inside Biosphere 2, why the project began to unravel, and whether it was ever the failure people still think it was. Topics include The Biosphere 2 experiment and its original Mars habitat ambitions Why oxygen levels dropped inside the sealed ecosystem The biospherians, food shortages, and life inside the dome How media coverage helped distort the story of Biosphere 2 Whether Biosphere 2 failed, or was misunderstood from the start Resources and Further Reading Biosphere 2 - Wikipedia Life under the bubble - Discover magazine The Human Experiment - by Jane Poynter Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

Morgan Metzer survived a home invasion that ended with a far darker truth: the man who came to save her may have known exactly what happened. On New Year's Eve in Canton, Georgia, a masked attacker entered a locked home, used intimate knowledge of the house, and left one woman bound, beaten, and terrified. The first person to find her was the ex-husband she still trusted, but the details of the night pointed somewhere far closer to home. This is a chilling story of gaslighting, coercive control, psychological abuse, and the case that later inspired Gaslit by My Husband. Topics include The New Year's Eve home invasion at the centre of Morgan Metzer's story How gaslighting and coercive control shaped the years before the attack The warning signs of psychological abuse hidden inside an old relationship The real case behind Gaslit by My Husband Resources and Further Reading Gaslit by My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story - Stream on Paramount Georgia man who attacked - CBS News From hero to villain - CBS News Saved by Her Ex-Husband - People.com Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

Nellie Bly faked madness to enter Blackwell's Island asylum, then turned fearless reporting into a 72-day race around the world. Before she became a legend, Elizabeth Cochran was a young reporter trying to force her way into a profession that barely made room for women. This episode follows her rise from sharp-tongued columnist to daring undercover journalist, as she exposes the cruelty inside Blackwell's Island, builds her reputation through investigative journalism, and catches the eye of Joseph Pulitzer. From Ten Days in a Mad House to a globe-spanning stunt that made her famous, it is a story about nerve, performance, ambition, and the price of becoming extraordinary. Topics include: Her early career and the making of Nellie Bly Going undercover inside Blackwell’s Island asylum What her investigation revealed about care, cruelty, and institutional neglect Investigative journalism as performance, risk, and public spectacle Joseph Pulitzer, the New York World, and the machinery of sensational reporting Her 72-day trip around the world and the frenzy that followed Resources and Further Reading 10 days in a madhouse - by Nellie Bly Nellie Bly - Wikipedia Woman & The American Story - nyhistory.org Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

In 2019, eBay went full villain in one of Silicon Valley’s biggest cyberstalking scandals. Today we’re diving into the fragile ego at the top, and the lengths the CEO went to in a harassment campaign against a wholesome suburban couple in Boston. After critical posts hit a nerve, eBay’s CEO instructed their Global Security team to take down nay sayers at any cost. Today we track the emails, fake accounts, doorstep packages, and the FBI investigation that drags the whole operation into the light. Topics include EcommerceBytes, Ina and David Steiner, and the criticism eBay could not ignore eBay cyberstalking tactics, fake accounts, and a harassment campaign gone rogue Threat Matrix, private dossiers, and what Global Security thought it was doing How the FBI traced the stalking back to eBay executives and DOJ charges Resources and Further Reading eBay stalking scandal - Wikipedia Take her down - Boston Magazine Execs Made Life Hell for Critics - Wired USA vs. eBay - Defered Prosecution Agreement Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

The West Memphis Three story is a nightmare of panic, pressure, and vanished evidence, where a confession mattered more than truth. In 1993, three eight-year-old boys vanished in West Memphis, Arkansas, then turned up murdered in Robin Hood Hills. As the Satanic Panic crept into the investigation, police chased a satanic ritual narrative and built a case around Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelley, fuelled by a false confession and courtroom “experts” who should never have been there. Years later, the hair evidence in a ligature knot and the Alford plea that freed them leave one brutal question hanging: if they walked out, who never got caught? Topics include Satanic Panic hysteria and a wrongful conviction built on fear Jesse Misskelley’s false confession and the interrogation tactics behind it Paradise Lost and West of Memphis, and how the documentaries shifted the case The Alford plea, the hair evidence in the knot, and why the case stayed unresolved DNA testing and the long fight for full exoneration Resources and Further Reading West Memphis Three - Wikipedia The Satanic Panic - Wikipedia Paradise Lost (1996) - Documentry West of Memphis (2012) - Peter Jackson Devil's Knot - Mara Leveritt Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.

McMillions exposed how McDonald’s Monopoly was quietly hijacked, turning “random” winners into a pattern the FBI could not ignore. It started with a tip that sounded like sour grapes, but then the FBI noticed something odd: all the winners were connected. The lead led to the realisation that the McDonald’s Monopoly game was rigged, and had been for most of its existence. And the man behind it was Uncle Jerry, Jerry Jacobson. What emerged was a secret FBI initiative dubbed Operation Final Answer, and a co-ordinated national sting. Topics include Jerry Jacobson and the inside job at the heart of McDonald’s Monopoly How game pieces were stolen, swapped, and funnelled to “winners” The St Jude prize story and why it made perfect cover Operation Final Answer and the FBI’s plan for simultaneous arrests Simon Marketing and the blind spots that let it run for years Resources and Further Reading McMillions (2020) - TV Mini Series McDonalds Monopoly Scam - Wikipedia Host & Show InfoHosts: Kyle Risi & Adam CoxIntro Music: Alice in dark WonderlandCommunity & Calls to ActionReview & follow on: Spotify & Apple PodcastsInstagram: @theCompendiumPodcastWebsite: thecompendiumpodcast.comSupport us: Sign up to PatreonCircus Job Board: Apply to join the CircusShare 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.