Dr Paul Allen

Where did the flat earth theory come from? Why do some Christians think the Bible teaches it? What’s up with Antarctica? And how on earth (ha ha, pun intended) do you explain away gravity, satellites, and aeroplane flight paths? Lindsey Medenwaldt delves deeply into the flat earth conspiracy theory, emerging with a mind filled with the most bizarre facts imaginable. In this 90-minute video, Melissa Dougherty interviews Medenwaldt to hear what she discovered during her month of research. Let’s just say, it’s wild!

This society clings to an archaic belief that the earth is a flat disc with magnetic north in its center. One understands how this belief could have been popular for the first 5000 or so years of human history, but it takes a more gymnastic use of mathematics to keep the faith today.  Adherents to this model of geography employ elaborate explanations of the physics that account for the masts of ships appearing on the horizon before their hulls. They possess theoretical paradigms that explain how eclipses and seasons occur. Not even sailors’ circumnavigation of the globe put a dent in their faith. But then came the satellite images of earth taken from space, published in the 1950s, followed by the eye-witness reports when the astronauts of Apollo 11 returned from the Moon, toting a slew of selfies with the earth as a geoid globe in the background. Surely now the Flat-Earthers would cry uncle? And yet, Samuel Shenton, an unphased member of the Flat Earth Society, declared condescendi...