Archives

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


  • In this week's Conversatiosn with Great Minds - Thom Hartmann is joined by Professor Frances Fox Piven who envisioned the 99 percent movement over a year ago. For the past thirty years - she has been a professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center at The City University of New York. She gained notoriety for an article she co-wrote with sociologist Richard Cloward in 1996 that advocated increased enrollment in social welfare programs in order to collapse the dysfunctional parts of that system and force reforms - leading to a guaranteed annual income. This political strategy is now known as the "Cloward-Piven strategy" and has been a hot topic of discussion in recent years. Professor Piven has served as the President of the American Sociological Association and is currently an honoray chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. And she is one of the people responsible for the fact that you can now register to vote at the DMV - In 1983 she co-founded Human SERVE, an organization with the goal of increasing voter registration by linking vehicle registration with access to social services and voting. Human SERVE's initiative was incorporated into the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 - more commonly known as the "Motor Voter Bill" - and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Professor Piven is the author of a dozen books - the latest being "Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate."


  • Bunny McDiarmid, Executive Director, Greenpeace International, joins Thom. Earlier today President Barack Obama created the Atlantic Ocean's first United States marine monument - called the Northeast Cannons and Seamounts Marine national Monument. President Obama made the announcement at an ocean conservation meeting earlier today - shortly after he issued a proclamation protecting an area of ocean off the coast of Cape Cod with a total area roughly equal to the size of Connecticut. The move comes after a week of disturbing news about the world's oceans. One recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature shows that the oceans have absorbed much of the energy that's been added to Earth's atmosphere as a result of burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Another recent study published in "Global Biogeochemical Cycles" shows how all of the CO2 that we've dumped into the atmosphere is causing the oceans to acidify - which is having profound negative impacts on deep-sea shell-forming organisms like sea urchins and snails. And another study from Stanford University showed that larger marine animals are going extinct faster than smaller animals - marking "a pattern that is unprecedented in the history of life on Earth, and one that is likely driven by human fishing." How urgent are these threats to our oceans - and what type of efforts will it take to avoid an oceanic mass extinction event? And what will it take to go even further - to repair our ocean's ecosystems?

    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!


  • Thom Hartmann talks with award winning actor and activist Ed Asner.


  • James Risen, Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War joins Thom Hartmann. 13 years after 9/11 - the War on Terror has turned into a massive moneymaking scheme for America's oligarchs. How did this happen - and what can we do to change it?


  • Dan Sisson, The American Revolution of 1800, joins Thom Hartmann who co-authored this book. Just 24 years after he wrote the Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson spearheaded a second American revolution. What was this second American revolution? And what can it tell us about we can do to protect our democracy right now in 2014? "The American Revolution of 1800" - a classic work of scholarship that - for me - like so many others - changed the way I saw the history of our country If there's one book you need to read to understand the real origins of American democracy - this is it


  • Steven Druker, Alliance For Bio-Integrity/Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public. Even though supporters of genetically engineered food say it's perfectly safe - decades of scientific research says otherwise.So why doesn't the Food and Drug Administration ban it once and for all?

    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!


  • 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!


  • Rais Bhuiyan, survivor of post 9/11 hate crime, Corey Saylor, Legislative Director-Counsel on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Rajdeep Singh, Director of Law and Policy-American Sikh Coalition & Dr. Michael Scheuer, Center for Peace and Security Studies / Former CIA Analyst / Author, "Imperial Hubris" all join Thom Hartmann. Earlier this week - we told you about the Islamophobic posters in New York Subway stations. Unfortunately - that's not just an isolated incident. All across America - Islamophobia is rearing it's ugly head - from burning down mosques to firebombing homes. But who and what are at the root of all the anti-Muslim sentiment in America - and what can we do stop it? That and more in tonight's Bigger Picture discussion - Islamophobia in America


  • Trevor Aaronson, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism, joins Thom Hartmann. You've seen the headlines....Massive bomb plot foiled! FBI nabs culprit just in time! But who's really behind these would-be terrorists?


  • For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - I'm joined by award-winning author Jeff Sharlet. His career in journalism, academia and publishing has distinguished him as a prolific voice on faith and spirituality in the United States. In 2000, Sharlet teamed up with novelist Peter Manseau to create KillingTheBuddha.com - which has since become an award-winning online literary magazine about religion and spirituality - and led to a year-long road trip across the United States where Sharlet investigated the various forms religion takes in this country. He has spoken at universities across the country, contributed to the country's leading magazines and newspapers - including Mother Jones, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Statesman, The Washington Post, Salon, and the Columbia Journalism Review - and is a familiar presence on MSNBC, NPR, CNN, BBC and the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His newest book - "Sweet Heaven When I Die" explores the spiritual landscape of the United States and profiles religious radicals, realists and escapists who straddle that undefined border between belief and skepticism.


  • Susan P. Crawford, JD - Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age joins Thom Hartmann.


  • Thom Hartmann sits down with nuclear energy specialist Robert Alvarez for Conversations with Great Minds. In light of the largest radiation detection at the Daiichi plant in Japan - Should we have a nuclear renaissance or a clean renewable energy renaissance?


  • What drives resisters, whistleblowers and conscientious objectors? P1 Eyal Press, Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times joins Thom Hartmann. For Tonight's Conversations with Great Minds...we examine the question of what leads people to stand up - dissent - and show true moral courage during times of crisis - especially when there's great risk in doing so. What's drives these resisters - whistblowers - conscientious objectors - who throughout history have tried to warn entire societies of the risk of succumbing to authority and convention. It's a question tonight's guest sought ought to answer - by going all the way back to World War 2 and telling stories of those who've defied the Nazis. And later - stories of those who defied their own communities and governments and set their guns downs rather than fight a way they didn't believe in. And those who today are taking on Corporate America. Eyal Press is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and The Nation. He is a past recipient of the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. And he is the author of the book we'll explore tonight - Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times"


  • Who was Fannie Lou Hamer and what was her contribution to the black rights movement?

    The granddaughter of enslaved laborer, how did she rise to prominence in the Civil Rights movements?

    Dr. Keisha N. Blain joined Thom to talk about Fannie Lou Hamer


  • Dr. Michael Mann, Climate Scientist / Professor & Director-Penn State Earth System Science Center / Author-"Dire Predictions" and "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars" joins Thom Hartmann. Despite clear evidence of climate change occurring - the number of climate change deniers in this country is on the rise. Who is bankrolling the phony science behind the deniers - and why is there a war on scientific freedom underway in America?