The Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating Things

A single cheese sandwich helped bring down a multimillion dollar brand. Fyre Festival was sold as the most exclusive party on earth: supermodels, private jets, villas and live music on an island once linked to Pablo Escobar. What guests actually found was rain-soaked disaster-relief tents, no running water and assemble-your-own sandwiches in styrofoam boxes. 

This is the story of Billy McFarland, the young entrepreneur who scammed his way to the top long before Fyre, through a fake-exclusive members club called Magnises and a string of schemes that should have been red flags years earlier. Alongside the rapper Ja Rule, he sold 95% of the tickets to a festival that had no infrastructure, no finalised acts and only eight weeks to build paradise from rubble. 

What unfolds is one of the great strange true stories of the influencer age: a glossy con powered by orange squares on Instagram, warnings nobody listened to, and a collapse the whole world watched in real time. Part disaster, part scam, entirely unbelievable. 

 

Topics Included 

who Billy McFarland was and the scams that came before Fyre

the Magnises members club and the trashed Manhattan townhouse

how Ja Rule and Fyre Media came together

the influencer marketing campaign and the orange tile stunt

selling 95% of tickets with no infrastructure in place

switching islands eight weeks before the festival

the arrival day collapse and the disaster-relief tents

the cheese sandwich that became the symbol of the whole failure

how social media exposed the festival live

Resources and Further Reading 

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019) – by Chris Smith

Fyre Festival – Wikipedia

Hype: Inside the Fyre Festival and the Golden Age of Grift – by Gabrielle Bluestone

Billy McFarland – Wikipedia

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
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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A headless body hung in a Wisconsin barn, strung up like a deer carcass. That was what police found when the Ed Gein case broke open on the first day of hunting season in 1957, and it was only the beginning of what waited inside his farmhouse.

This is the true story of Ed Gein, the quiet, polite handyman from Plainfield, Wisconsin, who became known as the Butcher of Plainfield and inspired some of the most terrifying characters in film history. We trace how a domineering, deeply religious mother named Augusta shaped a lonely boy who never broke free, and how that obsession curdled into something monstrous after her death. You’ll hear what really happened to shopkeeper Bernice Warden and tavern owner Mary Hogan, what investigators discovered among the rubbish and rot inside his home, and the detail most people get wrong: Gein only ever confirmed two murders.

The rest of his grim collection, he said, came from graves he had robbed. We also untangle how one man’s life fed three wildly different films; Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and  The Silence of the Lambs, and ask the uncomfortable question of how much sympathy a story like this can hold. A true crime story about isolation, control and the real horror behind Hollywood’s nightmares.

Topics included

The discovery in the barn on the first day of hunting season

The murder of Bernice Warden and the antifreeze receipt that gave Gein away

Augusta Gein and a childhood built on isolation and religious fear

The suspicious death of Ed’s brother Henry

What police found inside the farmhouse

The confirmed victims versus the grave robbing

Mary Hogan and the women who resembled his mother

The schizophrenia diagnosis and a lifetime in an institution

How Gein inspired Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill

Whether the story deserves any sympathy at all

Resources and Further Reading

Ed Gein - Wikipedia

Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original ‘Psycho’ – by Harold Schechter

"Monster, The Ed Gien Story (2025) - Netflix

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
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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Princess Diana thought she was marrying into a fairytale. By the honeymoon, she had to send a memo just to have lunch with her own husband. This is Princess Diana before the icon, before the cameras, before the People's Princess the world thought it knew. 

In Part 1 of our Princess Diana trilogy, we go right back to the beginning: a wealthy but emotionally cold childhood, parents locked in a bitter divorce, and a young Diana Spencer who grew up convinced she was never quite good enough. 

We follow her into the strangest courtship imaginable, a handful of heavily chaperoned dates with Prince Charles, a royal “audition” she didn't know she was failing or passing, and an engagement agreed after the couple had met barely a dozen times. 

From the first day, the cracks are there. The press hounds her relentlessly, the palace offers no support, and Camilla Parker Bowles never quite disappears. Behind the gloss of the 1981 royal wedding watched by 750 million people sits a lonely teenager, struggling with bulimia and the slow, dawning realisation that this was never going to be the love story she imagined. 

A story of family, fame, royal scandals and the human cost of becoming a symbol. 

This is where it all begins. Part 1 of 3. 

 

Topics Include 

Diana's emotionally cold childhood and her parents' bitter divorce

The custody battle and the sense that she was a disappointment

Diana's extraordinary, instinctive gift for empathy

How Charles and Diana actually met — through her older sister

Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles before the marriage

The royal “audition” and the search for a suitable bride

The whirlwind engagement after barely a dozen meetings

The 1981 royal wedding and its hidden tensions

Loneliness, bulimia and royal protocol on the honeymoon

The discovery that reignited the Camilla affair

Resources and Further Reading 

Diana’s childhood and family background - Britannica

Diana’s struggles with bulimia and mental health - Vogue

Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words - by Andre Morton

The Diana Chronicles - by Tina Brown

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
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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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
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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A body on an Adelaide beach. A hidden scrap of paper. A mystery that seemed to end with a name, yet still refuses to feel solved.

The Somerton Man case is one of Australia’s most enduring real life mysteries: an unidentified man found dead on Somerton Beach in 1948, no ID in his pockets, and a tiny hidden clue reading “Tamám Shud”. This episode follows the Somerton Man mystery through The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the alleged code, the mysterious nurse Jessica Thomson, poison rumours, Cold War spy theories and the decades of speculation that turned a lonely death into one of the world’s great unexplained mysteries.

We also explore Derek Abbott’s DNA work and the breakthrough that may have finally identified the man as Carl Webb. But if the Somerton Man now has a name, why does the story still feel so unfinished?

For listeners of a documentary podcast, history podcast, Australian true crime, cold case podcast stories and strange true stories, this is a case about what really happened, what evidence can answer, and what it cannot. It is part historical mystery, part forensic puzzle, and part dark history: a dead man on a beach, a literary clue in his pocket, and a final line that still sounds like a challenge — Tamám Shud.

Topic Include

the body found on Somerton Beach in 1948

the Tamám Shud clue and The Rubaiyat

the Somerton Man code

Jessica Thomson and the nurse connection

Cold War spy theories and poison rumours

Derek Abbott and the Carl Webb DNA breakthrough

Resources and Further Reading

Somerton Man identified  - ABC News

Carl Webb The Somerton Man - ABC News

Somerton Man photographs - ABC Australian Story

Somerton Man - Wikipedia

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
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.