Michael Jackson didn’t just become the King of Pop — he was built into him.

Today we follow Michael Jackson from Gary, Indiana and the Jackson 5 to Motown, Off the Wall, Thriller and the iconic moonwalk. But we will also revisit the thing that broke him, Neverland, and the first allegation that changed his life forever. This is a story of child stardom, family pressure, pop reinvention, and the cracks already forming beneath the most famous man in music.

Topics Include

• Joe Jackson, childhood pressure, and the Jackson family home
• The Jackson 5, Motown, and Michael’s breakout voice
• Off the Wall, Thriller, MTV, and the moonwalk
• The Pepsi burn, image changes, and Neverland
• Jordan Chandler and the moment everything turns

• Michael Jackson - Encyclopaedia Britannica
• The Jackson 5 - Motown Museum
• Michael Jackson - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• Pepsi fire left Michael Jackson in pain - Los Angeles Times

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland

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• Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
• Website: TheCompendiumPodcast.com
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• We’re Hiring: Find the perfect job at the circus

Host & Show Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland

Community & Calls to Action

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• Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
• Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
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Peter the Dolphin became the centre of a radical experiment that blurred science, intimacy, and ethics in ways no one was prepared for, thats right, this is a groomer story!

In the 1960s, neuroscientist John C Lilly and researcher Margaret Lovatt set out to teach a dolphin to speak English inside a flooded house in the Caribbean. What followed was an intense, isolated experiment in dolphin communication that drew the attention of NASA and raised unsettling questions about boundaries, consent, and scientific obsession. As Dolphin House collapsed under funding cuts and ethical scrutiny, Peter’s fate would haunt everyone involved.Topics include

• The Dolphin House experiment and its unconventional design
• John C Lilly’s theories on dolphin communication and sensory deprivation
• Margaret Lovatt’s role and the emotional reality of long-term isolation
• Why NASA funded dolphin research during the space race
• What happened to Peter the dolphin after the experiment ended

• Margaret Howe Lovatt - Wikipedia
• The dolphin who loved me - the Guardian
• John C. Lilly - Wikipedia
• The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins - BBC Documentry

Host & Show Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland

Community & Calls to Action

• Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
• Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
• Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
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• Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus

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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

• 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 Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• 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
• Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus

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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 Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland

Community & Calls to Action

• Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
• Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
• Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
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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

• Biosphere 2 - Wikipedia
• Life under the bubble - Discover magazine
• The Human Experiment - by Jane Poynter

Host & Show Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• 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
• Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus

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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

• 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 Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• 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
• Circus Job Board: Apply to join the Circus

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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

• 10 days in a madhouse - by Nellie Bly
• Nellie Bly - Wikipedia
• Woman & The American Story - nyhistory.org

Host & Show Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland

Community & Calls to Action

• Review & follow on: Spotify & Apple Podcasts
• Instagram: @theCompendiumPodcast
• Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
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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

• eBay stalking scandal - Wikipedia
• Take her down - Boston Magazine
• Execs Made Life Hell for Critics - Wired
• USA vs. eBay - Defered Prosecution Agreement

Host & Show Info

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• 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
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