The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,

Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.

Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,

wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,

environment, and geography.

I invite you to come along for the ride!

Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, the unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes,

Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscover the forgotten stories that changed our world.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

Hi everyone, today's topic is this.

How many people believed in the flat earth thesis in the Middle Ages?

Well, to answer this question, amusing information provided by a friend and long time helper

of all things medieval knowledge that I've had the pleasure of interviewing in the past,

and that is Tim O'Neill.

Tim runs the blog, Armaria Magnum, which I highly recommend checking out.

Now this question, what did people think about the flat earth thesis in the Middle Ages,

the scientific theory that the earth was in fact flat?

Well, here's the thing, no educated person actually believed that the earth was flat.

This is very common knowledge that people always get wrong, they'll think that everyone

in the Middle Ages thought that the earth was flat, that the medieval church taught that

the earth was flat, because that's how it was in the Bible, because the Bible describes

the sun as rising, and if we have to take the Bible literally, that's what you believe,

...