center of a flat disc, with the continents fanning out
around it, and Antarctica forming the disc’s icy cir-
cumference.) Sargent’s approach sometimes seems
reasonable. He mostly avoids other conspiracy the-
ories. Religion comes up only in episode 10. At the
end of each episode, he includes his email address
and telephone number, along with the line: “Do your
own research. And ask questions.”
When he finished watching Flat Earth Clues,
Foertsch called Sargent. It was 3 a.m., but Sargent
picked up. YouTubers who become famous for, say,
unboxing videos are generally content to keep their
work online, but flat-Earthers have parlayed internet
followings into a real-world presence, by organizing
experiments, meetups, and even dating events. (The
Denver conference organizers plan a flat Earth cruise
in 2020.) “Hey, Mark,” Foertsch said. “I know that
you’re exposing a powerful lie. Thank you for that.”After the billboard event wraps up, I hitch a ride with
some of the group to a Crowne Plaza near the Den-
ver airport. There I find Sargent sitting in the hotel
restaurant with other movement stars and a few
admiring fans. Sargent is scheduled to present the
Flattys video awards at the end of the conference.
He wears a black T-shirt and a black cap, like a Sili-
con Valley entrepreneur. I listen as he chats with an
engineer named Bob Knodel, who is on the board
of a group called FECORE that runs experiments
aimed at proving Earth is a plane, like beaming la-
sers across large bodies of water in an effort to show
a lack of curvature. “We’re literally in a battle for hu-
manity,” Knodel says. “That may sound grandiose,
but that’s what it comes down to. And that’s why flat
Earth is so heavily ridiculed.”
Sargent and Knodel discuss changes afoot at
YouTube, which, along with other internet heavies
like Facebook, is under public pressure to curb the
impact of fake news. In a July 2018 House Judiciary
Committee hearing on social-media responsibility,
YouTube director of public policy Juniper Downs
cited flat Earth videos when describing the sort of
content that requires policing.
Knodel sees this as evidence of official suppression,
but Sargent thinks it’s just a minor setback. He says of
YouTube and Google: “They’re in a tough spot be-
cause they’re making money on flat Earth.” The more
time someone spends on the platform, the more ads
they view—and former Google employees say that
when people look into flat Earth videos, they tend toPOPSCI.COM•FALL 2019 77Clues, which together have amassed more than 2 million views, feature
Hollywood movie stills, meme- worthy images, and a calm but unset-
tling narration. The series hinges on simple questions. Why are most of
the photos of the Earth from space composites? Why is it so difficult to
find a nonstop flight between two cities in the Southern Hemisphere?
Why do the major nations of the world seem content to share control of
Antarctica? (Many flat-Earthers hypothesize that the North Pole is at the