In this week's Conversations With Great Minds we'll meet a true pioneer who may well help revolutionize your relationship with our healthcare system. For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds I am joined by Dr. Peter Beilenson. He currently heads up the Health Deparment in Howard County, Maryland where he and his team have launched the Healthy Howard Intiative - a program that joins individuals, businesses, schools, community organizations and government to ceate and make accessible healthy alternatives in many different aspects of daily life for county residents. For 13 years he served as the Health Commissioner of Baltimore City in Maryland where his vision led to expanded drug treatment programs, improved immunization compliance, a wide range of extremely effective lead poisoning prevention initiatives, juvenile violence prevention, and the creation of the state-wide initiative for universal health coverage in Maryland called "Health Care for All" He is also the founder of "The Evergreen Project" - an initiative that was inspired by a provision in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and seeks to create healthcare co-ops that cut costs to both patients and providers while making sure that excellent health care is avaialble to communities. Dr. Beilenson was chosen as an Utne Reader visionary in 2011 - joining a distinguished list of individuals who - as described by the Editors of the publication - "are world visionaries who don't just concoct great ideas but also act on them."

For tonight's Conversation with Great Minds - Thom is joined by Jeff Cohen. Jeff is the founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College - where he is an associate professor of journalism. The former senior producer for MSNBC's "Donahue" program - he has appeared as a political commentator in national media and helped found both the media watchdog group FAIR -- Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting -- as well as the activism site RootsAction.org. Jeff's most recent book is "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media."

For tonight's Conversations With Great Minds - I'm joined by one of America's leading investigative journalists. The winner of the 2012 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism - Gareth Porter is known for reporting that cuts through mainstream narratives and tells largely unknown truths about American foreign policy. A Vietnam specialist by training with a Phd in Southeast Asian studies - he worked as the Saigon Bureau Chief for Dispatch News Service during the height of the Vietnam War and later served as the co-director of the Indochina Resource Center right here in D.C. Since 2006 - Gareth has been hard at work uncovering the true story behind the US-Iranian nuclear standoff - which he has writtten about in his fascinating new book - "Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare."

For tonight's Conversation with Great Minds - Thom is joined by Jeff Cohen. Jeff is the founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College - where he is an associate professor of journalism. The former senior producer for MSNBC's "Donahue" program - he has appeared as a political commentator in national media and helped found both the media watchdog group FAIR -- Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting -- as well as the activism site RootsAction.org. Jeff's most recent book is "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media."

Melvin J. Goodman, Center for International Policy / National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism joins Thom Hartmann. President Eisenhower warned us about the dangers of a military-industrial complex 53 years later - it's pretty clear we didn't listen. Why is that? And what can we do to make sure that we heed Eisenhower's warnings?

Nancy Cohen, PhD, Author - "Delirium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution is Polarizing America." joins Thom Hartmann. The battles over marriage equality and birth control are more than just contentious political debates. They're part of a larger movement that has engulfed Washington for the past 40 years...

Turn on the news these days and you're bound to hear some kind of fretting about millennials and their views on the world. Usually - the conversation revolves around questions like "why are millennials so lazy?" or "why do they spend so much time on social media?" - and while questions like that are kind of trite - they have a point. Millennials ARE different from other generations. Very - different in fact - especially when it comes to politics. My guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds has tried to find out why. Joining me now now is David Cahn. David is a journalist - an activist - a national leader of the Junior State of America - and an experienced campaign organizer. He also writes for the Huffington Post and along with his brother Jack - is the co-author of "When Millennials Rule: The Reshaping of America."

For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!