Scott Horton, Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America's Stealth Warfare / Harper's Magazine joins Thom Hartmann

Founder and producer of the Latino activist site, Cuentame.org (a Brave New Foundation Campaign), Axel Caballero joins me for our first half hour for Conversations with Great Minds. We'll discuss his mission on bringing awareness to Latino issues, to the unholy alliance between the prison industrial complex, the Republican Party, OWS, ALEC, and Herman Cain's immigrant "electric fence" so-called joke!

During his first presidential campaign - then Senator Barack Obama said that people would look back on his time in office and say that that was the "moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal" But has he really lived up to his own high standard on climate policy? I'll ask Dr. Michael Dorsey in tonight's Conversations with Great Minds. Dr. Michael Dorsey is currently the Interim Director of the Energy and Environment Program at the Joint Center for Political and Economic studies - where he works to combine the study of climate policy with the study of social justice issues. Before taking this position - Dr. Dorsey taught environmental studies at Wesleyan University and Darthmouth University. He was also a member of Barack Obama's energy and environment campaign team in 2008 and is on the Environmental Protection Agency's national advisory committee.

For tonight's Conversation With Great Minds - I'm joined by Dr. Ron Daniels - President of the Institute of the Black World - 21st Century. Dr. Daniels has had a wide ranging career in politics and activism - previously serving as the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights - the Executive Director of Rainbow / PUSH - and the Deputy Campaign manager for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign. In 1992 - he ran for President himself as an independent candidate.

For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - Thom is joined by Michael W. Hudson. Mike is a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was also an investigator for the Center for Responsible Lending. His writing has appeared in the publications like Forbes Magazine - the New York Times and Mother Jones. And much of that writing has been devoted to the foreclosure and mortgage crisis still plaguing the nation today - as well as the corruption in the big banks on Wall Street that underlie our current financial crisis. Mike is widely recognized for his work - and has been awarded the George Polk Award for magazine reporting - the John Hancock Award for business journalism and has received multiple accolades from the National Press Club and American Bar Association, among others. Currently - Mike is a Business and Finance writer with The Center for Public Integrity - and is the author of the book, "The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers.

For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - I speak with two radio industry leaders - Norm Pattiz and Michael Harrison. Last week I was in New York for the annual Talker's Convention - and I had the pleasure to sit down with Norm Pattiz. Norm is a broadcasting entrepreneur - a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame - and Founder of Courtside Entertainment Group. He's also the founder and former chairman of radio giant Westwood One and founder of Podcast One. Norm was appointed by both President Clinton and President George W. Bush to sit on the board of the Broadcasting Board of Governors - which oversees all U.S non-military broadcasting services - including The Voice of America - Radio Free Europe - Radio Liberty - Middle East Broadcasting and others. And - he's the chairman of Lawrence Livermore National Security, which runs Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. For our conversation - I started by asking him about how media has changed over the years and what the "story" of the media is today

Wenonah Hauter, Food and Water Watch/Frackopoly: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment joins Thom. President Obama has done more to fight global warming than any other president in history. So why does he still support fracking? Fracking supporters - like President Obama - say it's a bridge fuel to a clean energy future. But is that really the case? And is the natural gas boom actually just making it harder to us to make the transition to renewables?

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!