Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute & Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists, join Thom Hartmann. Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute & Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists join Thom Hartmann. The warming of the climate is unequivocal. That's one of the major findings of a new report put out by the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change. The report - released every six years - is the most comprehensive report on climate change and global warming. This year's report - worked on by over 800 authors from dozens of countries - won't be released in full until Monday - but the summary for policymakers was released earlier today - and it highlights the report's key findings. Among them - man-made climate change is near certain - and climate change is already effecting extreme and severe weather events across the globe.

Thom's guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds is award-winning historian Steve Fraser. Currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University - Steve is one of America's leading labor historians and is the co-founder - along with Tom Engelhardt - of the American Empire Project books series. Steve is also the editor-at-large of the journal New Labor Forum and is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books - including his latest -"The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power" - a fascinating look at America's new Gilded Age. From the Sons of Liberty to the Wobblies - America has always been a revolutionary country. So why with wealth inequality at record highs does it now seem like everyday Americans are terrified of taking on the powers that be?

Professor Harvey Kaye, The Fight For The Four Freedoms: What Made FDR And The Greatest Generation Truly Great/University of Wisconsin at Green Bay joins Thom. Seventy-Five years ago next week - FDR gave one of his most important public addresses - the so-called Four Freedoms speech. What lessons does that speech hold for us today - in 2015?

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!

Susan Jacoby, Journalist/Author, "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism," and most recently, "Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age" is tonight's Greatest Mind. Forty years ago - very few politicians flaunted their religious beliefs for personal gain. So what's changed - and what's given rise to the Christian Right in American politics? Her latest piece is - How The Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation.

Congressman Keith Ellison(D-MN, 5th District) / Author of the new book, My Country 'Tis of Thee: My Faith, My Family, Our Future joins Thom Hartmann.

Wendell Potter, Nation On the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It (w/Nick Penniman)/Center for Public Integrity/Center for Media and Democracy, joins Thom. The United States of America is now - for lack of a better word - the best democracy money can buy. Billionaire oligarchs like the Koch Brothers now outspend political parties - members of congress spend most of their day begging for donations instead of writing new laws - and lobbyists make millions and billions selling access to the commons. Needless to say - this is not the world our founding fathers envisioned when the declared a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." We are now - as my guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds has titled his new book - A "Nation on the Take." So how did we get to this point? And how can we reform our campaign finance system to reclaim the democratic institutions our founders created?

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!

Alyssa Katz, THE INFLUENCE MACHINE: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Capture of American Life joins Thom. How DID the Chamber of Commerce get so powerful? And what does that say about the corporate capture of our democracy?

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!