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!

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."

From the mountains of Pakistan to the border with Mexico - drones are America's 21st Century weapon of choice. What's fueling the rise of remote control warfare? I'll ask Code Pink Co-Founder Medea Benjamin in tonight's Conversation with Great Minds. Drone Warfare: Killing By Remote Control

Maya Schenwar, Truthout / Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better

Conversations w/Great Minds - Rick Perlstein, Invisible Bridge: The Fall Of Richard Nixon And The Rise of Ronald Reagan joins Thom Hartmann.

Peter Galuszka, Journalist/Author, Thunder On The Mountain: Death at Massey and the Dirty Secrets behind Big Coal. How many more Upper Big Branch tragedies is it going to take before America finally kicks it's addiction to coal? Or - better yet - before Coal companies put the worker's safety ahead of the bottom-line?

It's clear Hurricane Sandy was not your typical hurricane - but instead a superstorm fueled by climate change and global warming. How can climate change deniers still turn a blind eye to global warming after seeing the devastation Sandy brought to the East Coast? We'll ask our panel in tonight's Bigger Picture Discussion: Climate Change - Debunking the Denial. Dr. Amanda Staudt, Senior Scientist in the Climate and Energy Program at the National Wild life Federation, plus Dr. Joseph Romm - Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress & Editor, of ClimateProgress.org and Dr. Dan Lashof, Director of the Climate & Clean Air Program at the National Resource Defense Council - all join the panel w/Thom Hartmann.