The Flat-Earther Who Watched the Sun for 24 Hours Straight

Jeran Campanella had spent years telling 164,000 YouTube subscribers that the 24-hour Antarctic sun was a lie. Then someone bought him a plane ticket to go see it.

A $35,000 Question

Will Duffy, a volunteer Christian pastor from Wheat Ridge, Colorado, spent three years planning what he called The Final Experiment. The idea was simple: take flat-Earthers and globe-Earthers to the one place where the core dispute could be settled in real time. In December 2024, Duffy flew 24 flat-Earthers and 24 globe-Earthers to Union Glacier Camp, a private research station at approximately 79 degrees south latitude in West Antarctica. The trip cost roughly $35,000 per person. Duffy funded the flat-Earth participants' travel himself.

Three Days, One Camera, No Excuses

Using Starlink satellite internet, the group livestreamed the sky from Union Glacier continuously for three days - December 14 through 17, 2024. The sun did not set. It circled the horizon, dipped low, and rose again. There was no cut, no edit, and no night. The midnight sun that flat-Earthers had long claimed was either a myth or a government fabrication was broadcast live to anyone watching online.

The Part Nobody Expected

On December 14, Jeran Campanella - whose YouTube channel Jeranism had accumulated 164,000 subscribers on flat-Earth content - went live from Antarctica. He watched the sun trace its arc overhead and spoke directly to his audience. "I thought there wasn't 24-hour sunlight in Antarctica," he said. "In fact, I was almost sure of it. I sincerely believed it. But sometimes, you're wrong in life." He later told The Denver Post he intended to step away from the flat-Earth community. Fellow participant Austin Whitsitt acknowledged the 24-hour sun was real but stopped short of abandoning flat-Earth theory entirely.

The Community's Response

The broader flat-Earth movement rejected the footage entirely. Competing theories emerged: the livestream was filmed in the Arctic six months earlier; it was shot inside a dome studio; the participants had been paid off. Duffy noted the community had no unified response. "The flat Earth community is imploding," he said. "They cannot decide what to believe. They've all come up with their own conspiracies." Campanella, for his part, has since redirected his platform toward trying to convince other flat-Earthers they are wrong - and says former friends in the community have publicly attacked him for it.