Daniel Sheehan, The People's Advocate For tonight's Conversation With Great Minds - Thom is joined by constitutional trial attorney Daniel Sheehan. Daniel is one of the most influential public interest lawyers in the country and has worked on a number of cases - including the Pentagon Papers case and the Karen Silkwood case - that have changed the course of American history. In 1980 - he founded the Christic Institute - where he served as General Counsel and Chief Trial Attorney. Daniel has also served as Chief Trial Attorney for the Romero Institute and Chief Trial Counsel for the ACLU's Rocky Mountain States chapter. His new book - "The People's Advocate: The Life and Legal History of America's Most Fearless Public Interest Lawyer" - is a must read for anyone who wants to know the inside story of some of the most important trials of the past half century.

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.

For tonight's Conversation With Great Minds Thom is joined by Dr. Trita Parsi - the Founder and President of the National Iranian American Council. Dr. Parsi is the recipient of the 2010 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order and is an expert on US-Iranian relations - Iranian foreign politics - and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He is also the author of numerous books - including his most recent - "A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran" - a must read for anyone who wants to understand the complicated and confusing US - Iranian relationship.

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 special edition of Conversations With Great Minds - I'm joined by Dr. Ron Paul. From 1976 until 1985 and again from 1997 until 2013 - Dr. Paul was the U.S. Representative for Texas' 22nd and 14th Congressional Districts. He has run for President three times - most recently in 2012 - and is the founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity - as well as the Ron Paul Channel - which debuted last week. Dr. Paul is one of our country's most outspoken advocates for limited government and free-market economics and is the author of a number of books on those subjects - including his most recent - "The School Revolution: A New Answer for Our Broken Education. He also has started a new media channel The Ron Paul Channel.

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."

Joining Thom for tonight's Conversation With Great Minds is Dr. Reza Aslan. Dr. Aslan is a critically acclaimed writer and religious scholar and currently serves as an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and as Cooperating Faculty in the Department of Religion at the University of California - Riverside. He has degrees in religion from Santa Clara University - the University of California Santa Barbara - and Harvard University and is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His new book - "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" is a must read for anyone who wants to know the true story behind the "Greatest Story Every Told."