Archives

  • In this week's conversations with Great Minds Thom Hartmann talks with Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of "The Death of the Liberal Class". Chris Hedges says, "The lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, which looks set to make sweeping gains in the midterm elections, is the direct result of a collapse of liberalism. It is the product of bankrupt liberal institutions, including the press, the church, universities, labor unions, the arts and the Democratic Party."


  • Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director-Institute for Responsible Technology, leading spokesperson on the health dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), author of the books "Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating" and "Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods." Genetically modified crops are all the rage these days - and have taken over the agriculture industries of many countries. But just how dangerous are genetically modified crops - and do we really need to be relying so heavily on them?


  • For tonight's Converation with Great Minds - I am joined by Dick Gregory to talk about Occupy Wall Street, his activist work on the death penalty for a white supremacist, the Keystone Pipeline and more. Dick Gregory is a comedian, social activist writer, and entrepreneur whose work has redefined how Americans perceive political comedy and African American comedians. He got his first big break when he was hired by Hugh Hefner to perform stand up at the Chicago Playboy Club in 1961 and he hasn't stopped since. He began political activism by running against Richard J. Daley for the mayor's office in Chicago in 1967 and followed that up with a write-in campaign for the Oval Office in 1968 as a candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party. He has devoted himself to many causes throughout his career as an activist - including civil rights, women's rights, anti-war campaigns, the international anti-apartheid movement and environmental protection issues. When Thom Hartmann ran a community for abused kids in New England in the early 1980s, he was on the advisory board, and did fundraisers for the Salem program, and he traveled with Thom to Uganda during the end of the war with Idi Amin to set up famine and medical relief programs. He has devoted his life to using his considerable talents and gifts to helping others. He now finds himself on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Standups of All Time and has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.


  • Thom Hartmann talks to Michio Kaku about his new book Physics of the Future. String theory, time itself and how bubbles form are all on the table. They also talk about the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown and the future of energy. Michio Kaku speaks directly to President Obama who supports Nuclear Power.


  • Dr. David Graeber, professor of anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London on his book - Debt: The First 5000 years. The First 5000 years. How the concepts of debt and credit have defined human history and what this means for our current credit crisis and the future of our economy.


  • Are you what you eat? What does that make Trump?

    Ralph Nader joined Thom for a delicious conversation on food and politics

    Ralph Nader talked about his favorite family recopies.

    Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate/Lawyer & Author of numerous books.

    His latest book The Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook / Founder of numerous organizations including the Center for Study of Responsive Law & also the Public Interest Research Group (P.I.R.G.). Host of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour podcast.

    WATCH NEXT: The Courts Won't Stop Trump - https://youtu.be/rqiuCsMt4vM


  • Candida Moss The Myth of Persecutions, joins Thom Hartmann. For tonight's Conversation with Great minds I'm joined by Candida Moss. Candida is the Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in the role of martyrdom in Christian theology. A renowned scholar in her field of study - she has received recognition for her research from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation - the National Endowment for the Humanities - and the John Templeton Foundation. Her new book - "The Myth of Persecution - How Early Christians Invented A Story of Martyrdom" - reveals the truth behind centuries of Christian persecution stories and is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the mindset of the American religious right.


  • Are the rich Crazy? What about GOP Politicians? What is the relationship between psychopathy and success in business and politics? Is Donald Trump a psychopath? What about Mitch McConnell or Ronald Reagan?

    Are they crazy? Dr. Justin Frank exposes the rich psychopaths who buy psychopaths in political office. What a crazy world we live in!

    How are you staying sane with all the crazy around us?

    Dr. Justin A. Frank joined Thom to discuss Trump’s current state of mind.


  • David Pepper exposes the most corruption in all our democracy as Part of Conversations with Great Minds.

    David Pepper is a lawyer, writer, political activist, former elected official, and adjunct professor-University of Cincinnati College of Law / served as Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party between 2015 and 2021.

    His new book Labs Of Autocracy


  • Global warming is real - and possibly even worse than we've been told. Could it lead to the destruction of human civilization within just a few decades? For tonight's Conversations With Great Minds - I'm joined by Guy McPherson -Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources - Ecology - and Evolutionary Biology at the University Arizona. Guy is one of America's most influential experts on global warming - and writes about a variety of climate change-related issues for the Arctic News and his own website - Nature Bats Last. In the field of climate science - Guy is best known for his assertion that runaway global warming is already on a path to cause the extinction of the human race - an idea he has written about in his book - "Going Dark."


  • For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds, Thom Hartmann is joined by Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. Paul Krugman. Krugman received a Ph.D. from MIT - and has taught at several schools including Yale, MIT, and Stanford. He's written 20 books - including several best-sellers - and over 200 papers on international trade, finance, currencies, and several other areas. He's the recipient of numerous awards - including the Nobel Prize in economics, which he won in 2008. Currently - he is a professor of economics and current affairs at Princeton University - and you can read Paul Krugman's work everyday as a columnist on the pages of the New York Times. His new book is titled: End This Depression Now. Europe is in crisis mode. The United States could be headed off a fiscal cliff at the end of the year. And Congress doesn't seem to know what to do. Tonight Thom speaks with someone who DOES know what to do: Paul Krugman


  • Morris Berman, author Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline. "Why America Failed" is the third volume of his trilogy on the decline of the American empire. In it - Morris Berman examines America's commitment to economic liberalism and free enterprise going as far back as the late sixteenth century, and concludes that this ideology, combined with technological progress, was an inevitable recipe for creating the demise of the American empire as we are experiencing today. He served on the faculty of a number of universities in the United States, Canada and Europe and he currently resides in Mexico where he writes for a number of publications worldwide.


  • Thom Hartmann and Ralph Nader (http://nader.org/) talk about Tea Party, midterm elections and a role of the corporate power in American history and political system of today.


  • For tonight's "Conversation with Great Minds" - I am joined by award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and internationally best-selling author - Naomi Klein. Naomi Klein is a contributing editor for Harper's and reporter for Rolling Stone, and writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian that is also syndicated internationally. Her writing has appeared in dozens of other major newspapers - including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and The Los Angeles Times. In 2004, her reporting from Iraq for Harper's magazine earned her the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. She is a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics and holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of King's College in Canada. In 2007, her book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" became a number one international best-seller. Her first book"No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies" was published in 1999 and was also an international bestsellerThe New York Times called it "a movement bible," Time Magazine named it as one of the Top 100 non-fiction books published since 1923, and the Literary Review of Canada has named it one of the hundred most important Canadian books ever published. Naomi talks to Thom Hartmann about Occupy Wall Street, the Keystone Pipeline and the economy.


  • Dr. James Loewen, Sociologist/Historian/Author of 6 books including "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and "Lies Across America." The average American History textbook weighs 4.5 pounds - is 888 pages long - and contains page after page of misinformation that is tainting the education of American children every day. So how can teachers give children a comprehensive and accurate history of America?


  • Joe Madison, Joe Madison Show & Human rights activist joins Thom Hartmann. What fuels racism and police brutality in America? Is it politcal rhetoric from the right - or something more deep-seated? And what can we do about it? We'll pose those questions and more to Joe Madison in tonight's Conversations with Great Minds.