Fact check: No, Elon Musk did not claim to be a flat earther on Joe Rogan's podcast

Eleanor McCrary, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Video shows Elon Musk admitting he is a flat earther

An April 22 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) purportedly shows a clip of podcast host Joe Rogan asking Elon Musk about the flat Earth conspiracy theory.

"So I heard this crazy rumor that I want you to tell me if it's true or not," Rogan supposedly says in the video. "Somebody told me you're now a flat earther. Is this true?"

The video cuts to Musk, founder of SpaceX, seemingly saying it's impossible to travel to Mars because of the "firmament," which some conspiracy theorists believe is an impenetrable dome covering the flat Earth.

"Elon is a Flat Earther!" reads overlaid text on the video.

It was shared over 5,000 times in three days. A similar video posted the same day received an additional 2,000 shares. The TikTok version of the video has been viewed over 1 million times and shared more than 25,000 times.

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Our rating: Altered

The audio is not real and was likely created using artificial intelligence, experts told USA TODAY. There is no evidence Musk believes in the flat Earth conspiracy theory.

Audio shows signs of being auto-generated, expert says

The outfits Rogan and Musk are wearing in the video match the Feb. 11, 2021, episode of Rogan's podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience."

However, in the three-and-a-half hour podcast, Rogan and Musk never have the discussion in the post.

Several characteristics about the video suggest it has been auto-generated, Paris Smaragdis, a professor at the University of Illinois who studies audio processing and artificial intelligence, said in an email to USA TODAY.

"This particular recording is unusually slow and sleepy, which points to auto-generated speech," he said.

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The words Rogan and Musk seemingly say don't match the movement of their lips.

There are also subtle indications the audio is not authentic, like some "crunchiness" between the words "moon" and "but" about 18 seconds into the video, Smaragdis said.

"The complete silence between some sentences is also a little suspicious. You usually get at least a little bit of sound during speaker pauses," he said. "It is not very consistent in this case though since some pauses do have non-silence, so it points to parts having been stitched together."

There is other evidence the video is a combination of multiple clips.

The last shot of Rogan as he smiles and turns around to look off-camera is the same one that's 26 seconds into a video clip from the podcast. Instead of talking about flat Earth theory, Musk and Elon are discussing the shape of the Starship, a rocket created by SpaceX.

Rogan, Musk and flat Earth theory

Rogan and Musk jokingly reference the debunked theory that Earth is flat about three hours and 15 minutes into the podcast episode.

The men are discussing the possibility of flying in a commercial plane to an altitude of 100,000 feet when Rogan says, "The great thing about that is that you could bring flat earthers up there."

Fact check roundup: Debunking the flawed science behind flat Earth claims

They also briefly mention flat Earth theory in a 2018 episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," but the men are wearing different outfits and the audio does not match the social media post.

In that episode, Rogan asks Musk what he thinks of the theory and Musk replies that it's a "troll situation," while Rogan insists there are people who actually believe it's true.

In March 2023, USA TODAY debunked another false claim that Musk tweeted about flat Earth theory.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Video of Elon Musk discussing flat Earth theory is altered