Thom Hartmann
Encyclopedia
Thom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive
political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, Talkers Magazine named Hartmann the tenth most important talk show host in America,, and number 8 in 2011 defining him as the most important liberal host for four years in a row (the ones above Hartmann are conservatives).
Hartmann's article "Talking Back To Talk Radio" became part of the original business plan of Air America Radio
. He replaced Al Franken
on the network on February 19, 2007. On March 1, 2009, Hartmann moved syndication of his show from Air America to the former Jones Network, now owned by Dial Global
(which also syndicates Neal Boortz
, Ed Schultz
, Michael Smerconish
, Bill Press
, Stephanie Miller
, and Clark Howard
). In the summer of 2009, his program began to also be offered to nonprofit stations via the Pacifica network, and some community/nonprofit stations in the US are also carrying his show. The radio program is also simulcast as a TV program by Free Speech TV on Dish Network and DirecTV. Additionally, he stars in a one-hour daily TV show which his production company records at the studios of and licenses to the RT
news network, "The Big Picture
"; that TV show is also syndicated by Free Speech TV
and carried on both Dish Network and local cable TV stations.
Hartmann is a lay scholar of the history and textual analysis of the United States Constitution
; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD); electronic voting fraud; and environmental issues like global warming
. He has authored many books on political topics and ADHD. He is the inventor of the Hunter vs. farmer theory
of the condition.
, the son of a staunch conservative Republican, atheist father and a Christian mother, and grew up in nearby Lansing. His paternal grandparents were from Norway
. Interested in politics from a young age, he campaigned for Barry Goldwater
during the 1964 presidential election when he was 13. By 1968, Hartmann was studying at Michigan State University
and working as a part-time news announcer at local country music station WITL while protesting the Vietnam War
with Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS).
in the late 1960s but left to pursue an education in alternative medicine
. He attained a Chartered Herbalist degree from Dominion Herbal College
, a Master of Herbology degree from Emerson College of Herbology
, a Ph.D. in Homeopathic Medicine from Brantridge Forest School, and did postgraduate work in acupuncture
from the China Beijing International Acupuncture Training Center. He is a rostered psychotherapist in the State of Vermont and licensed Neuro-linguistic programming
practitioner.
/liberal
politics (although he describes himself as part of the radical middle
). He is the author of numerous books including Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights
, in which he argues that the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (118 U.S. 394) did not actually grant corporate personhood
, and that this doctrine derives from a mistaken interpretation of a Supreme Court clerk's notes. Hartmann considers this a clear contradiction of the intent of the Founding Fathers of the United States
. He has also written on the separation of church and state
, drawing upon the Federalist Papers
to argue that the Founding Fathers warned against the notion of the United States being a Christian
nation. He contends that the 2000 American election and 2004 American election were stolen through electronic tampering, denial of the voting franchise
by rigged voting lists, and limiting availability of voting machines in selected precincts. He also accuses the Bush administration of eroding democracy
and individual freedoms.
Hartmann is also a vocal critic of the effects of globalization
on the U.S. economy, claiming that economic policies enacted during and since the presidency of Ronald Reagan
have led, in large part, to many American industrial enterprises' being acquired by multinational firms based in overseas countries, leading in many cases to manufacturing jobs' – once considered a major foundation of the U.S. economy – being relocated to countries in Asia and other areas where the costs of labor are lower than in the U.S.; and the concurrent reversal of the United States' traditional role of a leading exporter of finished manufactured goods to that of a primary importer of finished manufactured goods (exemplified by massive trade deficits with countries such as China
). Hartmann argues that this phenomenon is leading to the erosion of the American middle class
, whose survival Hartmann deems critical to the survival of American democracy. This argument is expressed in Hartmann's 2006 book, Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It. One of the book's main arguments is that media deregulation
leads to corporate media's shifting the American consensus towards the acceptance of privatization
and massive corporate profits – which causes the shrinking of the middle class.
In the book Ultimate Sacrifice, he and co-author Lamar Waldron argue that President John F. Kennedy's assassination resulted from a conspiracy by two mafia godfathers (Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante) who took advantage of a proposed 1963 USA-sponsored coup (against Cuba's Fidel Castro
) to kill the President and then hide their tracks in the resulting cover-up of the top-secret coup plans. Gore Vidal
, in his recent autobiography "Point To Point Navigation" devotes much of the final two chapters of his book to praising Hartmann's and Lamar Waldron's scholarship in "solving" the JFK case (JFK was a friend of Vidal's).
Hartmann started in radio as a DJ
(country, rock, progressive overnight) in 1968 in Lansing, Michigan, (on WITL, WVIC, WFMK) and program director (WNBY) and worked full or part-time in radio while also attending school and/or running businesses in Michigan for a decade. He returned to radio in February 2003 with a show on a local station in Vermont, then a month later picked up the noon-3 PM ET slot on the i.e. America Radio Network
and Sirius Satellite Radio
. In 2005, he moved from Vermont to Oregon and, in addition to continuing his national show, also co-hosted a local talk show in Portland, Oregon
(with Carl Wolfson, the late Heidi Tauber, and later Christine Alexander), from 2005 until early 2007 on KPOJ
, initially an affiliate of Air America Radio
owned by Clear Channel Communications
. The KPOJ local morning 6 – 9 AM PT is now hosted by Carl Wolfson. In late 2010 Hartmann moved his show from Portland to Washington D.C.
Hartmann's national program, on the air since 2003 in the noon – 3 PM ET daypart live against Rush Limbaugh
, was chosen by Air America to replace Al Franken
on most Air America affiliates in 2007. Some stations, such as The Quake
in San Francisco, had already dropped or moved Franken for Hartmann, who now is, according to Talkers Magazine, America's most important liberal talker. As of October 2010, the show was carried on 72 terrestrial radio stations in 33 states as well as on Sirius and XM satellite radio. A community radio station in Africa, Radio Builsa in Ghana
, also broadcasts the show. Various local cable TV networks simulcast the program.
According to his syndicator Dial Global, more people listen to Hartmann's show on more stations than any other progressive talk show in America. The Thom Hartmann Show is estimated by industry magazine Talkers to have 2.75 million unique listers per week. In addition to Dial Global, a subsidiary of Triton Media Group, the show is now also offered via Pacifica Audioport to non-profit stations in a non-profit compliant format and is simulcast on Dish Network Channel 9415 via Free Speech TV Network.
Many guests appear on the show purporting points of view on diverse social and political topics. Some guests proffer progressive views similar to Hartmann's, but more than half are conservatives, libertarians, or Ayn Rand Institute
members who espouse opposing views. A vigorous debate with the host usually ensues. There are four regular guests on the program, and they are sympathetic to Hartmann's political views. Sen. Bernie Sanders
(Ind.-VT) appears every Friday during the first hour of the show titled "Brunch with Bernie". Ellen Ratner
of the Talk Radio News Service provides Washington commentary daily. Victoria Jones who is the White House
correspondent for Talk Radio News Service appears occasionally as does Dr. Ravi Batra
an economics professor at SMU
.
Like all talk radio shows, The Thom Hartmann Program takes calls from listeners. When callers asked Thom how he was, he used to reply, "I'm great, but I'll get better." But after a time callers would regularly try to elicit this response so he's stopped replying this way routinely. Hartmann ends each show with the phrase, "Activism begins with you, democracy begins with you. Get out there, get active! Tag, you're it!"
, which is seen worldwide on the Russian-based RT
news channel, as well as on Free Speech TV
; through Free Speech TV it is also seen on selected local-origination and Public-access television
cable TV channels.
organization, and through his affiliation with that group he helped start international relief programs in Uganda, Colombia, Russia, Israel, India, Australia, and several other countries between 1979 and today.
Hartmann founded International Wholesale Travel and its retail subsidiary Sprayberry Travel in Atlanta in 1983, a business which in the intervening years has generated over a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue. According to their website, Sprayberry Travel was lauded by the Wall Street Journal in 1984 for being one of the early adopters of frequent travel programs analogous to the recently initiated frequent flyer programs of the airline industry. He sold his share in the business in 1986 and retired with his family to Germany to work with the international relief organization Salem International
. In the late 1970s, he had been a trainer in advertising and marketing for The American Marketing Centers (now defunct), and in 1987 after returning from Germany founded the Atlanta advertising agency Chandler, MacDonald, Stout, Schneiderman & Poe, Inc., which did business as The Newsletter Factory. He sold his interest in that company in 1996 and retired to Vermont.
after the Dalai Lama finished reading this book. Hartmann won the Project Censored
Award in 2004 for Unequal Protection. As a result of a book on spirituality
, The Prophet's Way, he was invited in 1998 to meet Pope John Paul II
.
Trained in the 1970s in Neuro-Linguistic Programming
by Richard Bandler
(Hartmann is licensed by Bandler's Society of NLP as both an NLP Practitioner and an NLP Trainer, and Bandler wrote the foreword to his book "Healing ADD"), Hartmann popularized some of its concepts in Cracking the Code (2007), which argues that Newt Gingrich
and Frank Luntz
made use of them in the 1980s and 1990s for Republican Party
causes and advocates using them to advance liberalism. His book "Healing ADD" also leans heavily on NLP techniques. His book on the JFK Assassination (written with Lamar Waldron) titled "Ultimate Sacrifice" is cited extensively in the last two chapters of Gore Vidal's recent autobiography as having "finally solved" that case.
Hartmann was one of several contributors to Air America, the Playbook, a 300 plus page collection of essays, transcripts, and interviews by liberal radio personalities. It was published shortly before the 2006 Congressional elections and was on the New York Times Best Seller list for October 8, 2006.
Leonardo DiCaprio
made a web movie titled "Global Warning" that was inspired by The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. Hartmann appears in DiCaprio's 2007 documentary The 11th Hour
, as well as the feature documentary film Dalai Lama Renaissance
(with Harrison Ford), and Crude Impact
.
(ADHD) and adult attention-deficit disorder
(AADD) and is the creator (first proposed by him in 1978, first published nationally in 1992) of the now well-known hunter vs. farmer theory
that ADD is an expected evolutionary adaptation
to hunting lifestyles. These individuals have the ability of rapidly shifting their focus and external attention and of holding multiple trains of thought. This ability causes difficulties when they must live and work in cultures in which "farming" – well-planned, predictable, organized and repetitive behaviours – is typical. His first book on the disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder: a Different Perception was described by Scientific American as "innovative and fresh". Hartmann has established specialized schools for children with ADHD, such as The Hunter School in Rumney, New Hampshire
, which he cofounded with his wife Louise.
He also operated the "ADD Forum" and "DeskTop Publishing Forum", along with several others, on CompuServe
.
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, Talkers Magazine named Hartmann the tenth most important talk show host in America,, and number 8 in 2011 defining him as the most important liberal host for four years in a row (the ones above Hartmann are conservatives).
Hartmann's article "Talking Back To Talk Radio" became part of the original business plan of Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
. He replaced Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
on the network on February 19, 2007. On March 1, 2009, Hartmann moved syndication of his show from Air America to the former Jones Network, now owned by Dial Global
Dial Global
Dial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is a sister company to Townsquare Media, both of which are owned by Oaktree Capital Management....
(which also syndicates Neal Boortz
Neal Boortz
Neal A. Boortz, Jr. is an American Libertarian radio host, author, and political commentator. His nationally syndicated talk show, The Neal Boortz Show, airs throughout the United States on Dial Global . It is ranked seventh in overall listeners, with 4.25+ million per week...
, Ed Schultz
Ed Schultz
Edward Andrew "Ed" Schultz Is an American television and radio host and a liberal political commentator . He is the host of The Ed Show, a daily news talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global, promising "straight talk."-Early...
, Michael Smerconish
Michael Smerconish
Michael A. Smerconish is an American radio and television personality, newspaper columnist, author and MSNBC Political Analyst. His talk radio show is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at The Big Talker 1210 AM WPHT. He began his full time radio career in 2002...
, Bill Press
Bill Press
William "Bill" Press is a US talk radio host, political commentator and author.-Career:Press has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Niagara University and Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He started his broadcasting career in Los Angeles for TV stations KABC-TV and...
, Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Miller
Stephanie Catherine Miller is an American comedienne and host of The Stephanie Miller Show, a progressive talk radio program produced in Los Angeles and syndicated nationally by Dial Global. Talkers magazine ranked her as the 24th most important radio talk show host in America for 2010.-Early...
, and Clark Howard
Clark Howard
Clark Howard , is a popular U.S. talk radio host of the nationally syndicated consumer advocate program The Clark Howard Show. The show covers consumer and financial news, with advice on how to spend less, save more and avoid rip-offs...
). In the summer of 2009, his program began to also be offered to nonprofit stations via the Pacifica network, and some community/nonprofit stations in the US are also carrying his show. The radio program is also simulcast as a TV program by Free Speech TV on Dish Network and DirecTV. Additionally, he stars in a one-hour daily TV show which his production company records at the studios of and licenses to the RT
RT (TV network)
RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....
news network, "The Big Picture
The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann
The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann is an American talk news show on RT hosted and produced by political commentator and radio host Thom Hartmann...
"; that TV show is also syndicated by Free Speech TV
Free Speech TV
-External links:...
and carried on both Dish Network and local cable TV stations.
Hartmann is a lay scholar of the history and textual analysis of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
(ADHD); electronic voting fraud; and environmental issues like global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. He has authored many books on political topics and ADHD. He is the inventor of the Hunter vs. farmer theory
Hunter vs. farmer theory
The hunter vs. farmer theory is a hypothesis proposed by Thom Hartmann about the origins of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and adult attention-deficit disorder , suggesting that these conditions may be a result of a form of adaptive behavior.Hartmann developed the hunter vs...
of the condition.
Early life
Hartmann was born in Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, the son of a staunch conservative Republican, atheist father and a Christian mother, and grew up in nearby Lansing. His paternal grandparents were from Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. Interested in politics from a young age, he campaigned for Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
during the 1964 presidential election when he was 13. By 1968, Hartmann was studying at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
and working as a part-time news announcer at local country music station WITL while protesting the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
with Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS).
Education
Hartman attended Michigan State UniversityMichigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
in the late 1960s but left to pursue an education in alternative medicine
Alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....
. He attained a Chartered Herbalist degree from Dominion Herbal College
Dominion Herbal College
Dominion Herbal College, founded 1926, is a registered and accredited post-secondary school in British Columbia, Canada.-Chartered Herbalist Diploma:...
, a Master of Herbology degree from Emerson College of Herbology
Emerson College of Herbology
Emerson College of Herbology was one of the first schools of Herbal Medicine founded in North America. This college taught the science of Herbology. It was based in Montreal, Canada....
, a Ph.D. in Homeopathic Medicine from Brantridge Forest School, and did postgraduate work in acupuncture
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....
from the China Beijing International Acupuncture Training Center. He is a rostered psychotherapist in the State of Vermont and licensed Neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...
practitioner.
Beliefs
Hartmann is considered to have progressiveProgressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
/liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
politics (although he describes himself as part of the radical middle
Radical middle
The terms radical center , radical middle or radical centrism describe a philosophy as well as an associated political movement and position on the political spectrum...
). He is the author of numerous books including Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights
Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights
Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights is a 2004 book by Thom Hartmann. The book explains that the largest transnational corporations control most of the world's wealth and exert power over the lives of most of the world's citizens...
, in which he argues that the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (118 U.S. 394) did not actually grant corporate personhood
Corporate personhood
Corporate personhood is the status conferred upon corporations under the law, which allows corporations to have rights and responsibilities similar to those of a natural person. There is a question about which subset of rights that are afforded to natural persons should also be afforded to...
, and that this doctrine derives from a mistaken interpretation of a Supreme Court clerk's notes. Hartmann considers this a clear contradiction of the intent of the Founding Fathers of the United States
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
. He has also written on the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, drawing upon the Federalist Papers
Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...
to argue that the Founding Fathers warned against the notion of the United States being a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
nation. He contends that the 2000 American election and 2004 American election were stolen through electronic tampering, denial of the voting franchise
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
by rigged voting lists, and limiting availability of voting machines in selected precincts. He also accuses the Bush administration of eroding democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and individual freedoms.
Hartmann is also a vocal critic of the effects of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
on the U.S. economy, claiming that economic policies enacted during and since the presidency of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
have led, in large part, to many American industrial enterprises' being acquired by multinational firms based in overseas countries, leading in many cases to manufacturing jobs' – once considered a major foundation of the U.S. economy – being relocated to countries in Asia and other areas where the costs of labor are lower than in the U.S.; and the concurrent reversal of the United States' traditional role of a leading exporter of finished manufactured goods to that of a primary importer of finished manufactured goods (exemplified by massive trade deficits with countries such as China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
). Hartmann argues that this phenomenon is leading to the erosion of the American middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, whose survival Hartmann deems critical to the survival of American democracy. This argument is expressed in Hartmann's 2006 book, Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It. One of the book's main arguments is that media deregulation
Deregulation
Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
leads to corporate media's shifting the American consensus towards the acceptance of privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
and massive corporate profits – which causes the shrinking of the middle class.
In the book Ultimate Sacrifice, he and co-author Lamar Waldron argue that President John F. Kennedy's assassination resulted from a conspiracy by two mafia godfathers (Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante) who took advantage of a proposed 1963 USA-sponsored coup (against Cuba's Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
) to kill the President and then hide their tracks in the resulting cover-up of the top-secret coup plans. Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
, in his recent autobiography "Point To Point Navigation" devotes much of the final two chapters of his book to praising Hartmann's and Lamar Waldron's scholarship in "solving" the JFK case (JFK was a friend of Vidal's).
Talk radio career
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
(country, rock, progressive overnight) in 1968 in Lansing, Michigan, (on WITL, WVIC, WFMK) and program director (WNBY) and worked full or part-time in radio while also attending school and/or running businesses in Michigan for a decade. He returned to radio in February 2003 with a show on a local station in Vermont, then a month later picked up the noon-3 PM ET slot on the i.e. America Radio Network
I.E. America Radio Network
i.e. America Radio Network was a Detroit-based radio network consisting primarily of liberal talk and lifestyle shows. They were owned by the United Auto Workers and broadcast nationally from 1996 to 2004, via radio stations and a webcast.-History:...
and Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
. In 2005, he moved from Vermont to Oregon and, in addition to continuing his national show, also co-hosted a local talk show in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
(with Carl Wolfson, the late Heidi Tauber, and later Christine Alexander), from 2005 until early 2007 on KPOJ
KPOJ
KPOJ is a radio station located in the Portland, Oregon, area. It airs a progressive talk format and was an original Air America Radio affiliate.-History:...
, initially an affiliate of Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. The KPOJ local morning 6 – 9 AM PT is now hosted by Carl Wolfson. In late 2010 Hartmann moved his show from Portland to Washington D.C.
Hartmann's national program, on the air since 2003 in the noon – 3 PM ET daypart live against Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
, was chosen by Air America to replace Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
on most Air America affiliates in 2007. Some stations, such as The Quake
KQKE
KKGN is a progressive talk radio station licensed to Oakland, California which serves the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications....
in San Francisco, had already dropped or moved Franken for Hartmann, who now is, according to Talkers Magazine, America's most important liberal talker. As of October 2010, the show was carried on 72 terrestrial radio stations in 33 states as well as on Sirius and XM satellite radio. A community radio station in Africa, Radio Builsa in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, also broadcasts the show. Various local cable TV networks simulcast the program.
According to his syndicator Dial Global, more people listen to Hartmann's show on more stations than any other progressive talk show in America. The Thom Hartmann Show is estimated by industry magazine Talkers to have 2.75 million unique listers per week. In addition to Dial Global, a subsidiary of Triton Media Group, the show is now also offered via Pacifica Audioport to non-profit stations in a non-profit compliant format and is simulcast on Dish Network Channel 9415 via Free Speech TV Network.
Many guests appear on the show purporting points of view on diverse social and political topics. Some guests proffer progressive views similar to Hartmann's, but more than half are conservatives, libertarians, or Ayn Rand Institute
Ayn Rand Institute
The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism is a 501 nonprofit think tank in Irvine, California that promotes Ayn Rand's philosophy, called Objectivism. It was established in 1985, three years after Rand's death, by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's legal heir...
members who espouse opposing views. A vigorous debate with the host usually ensues. There are four regular guests on the program, and they are sympathetic to Hartmann's political views. Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives...
(Ind.-VT) appears every Friday during the first hour of the show titled "Brunch with Bernie". Ellen Ratner
Ellen Ratner
Ellen Ratner is a news analyst on the Fox News Channel and appears on The Strategy Room and The Long and Short of It. She is also White House Correspondent and Bureau Chief for the Talk Radio News Service, covering the White House and is heard on over 400 radio stations across the US...
of the Talk Radio News Service provides Washington commentary daily. Victoria Jones who is the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
correspondent for Talk Radio News Service appears occasionally as does Dr. Ravi Batra
Ravi Batra
Raveendra Nath "Ravi" Batra is an Indian-American economist, author, and professor at Southern Methodist University. Batra is the author of six international bestsellers, two of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list...
an economics professor at SMU
SMU
SMU may stand for:*Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, USA**SMU Mustangs, the athletic program of the above school*St. Martin's University in Lacey, Washington, USA*Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
.
Like all talk radio shows, The Thom Hartmann Program takes calls from listeners. When callers asked Thom how he was, he used to reply, "I'm great, but I'll get better." But after a time callers would regularly try to elicit this response so he's stopped replying this way routinely. Hartmann ends each show with the phrase, "Activism begins with you, democracy begins with you. Get out there, get active! Tag, you're it!"
TV program
Hartmann produces a one hour daily TV show, The Big Picture with Thom HartmannThe Big Picture with Thom Hartmann
The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann is an American talk news show on RT hosted and produced by political commentator and radio host Thom Hartmann...
, which is seen worldwide on the Russian-based RT
RT (TV network)
RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....
news channel, as well as on Free Speech TV
Free Speech TV
-External links:...
; through Free Speech TV it is also seen on selected local-origination and Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV channels.
Business career
Hartmann began his business career in the early 1970s while in his 20s, co-founding The Woodley Herber Company. Woodley Herber sold herbal products, potpourris and teas, and operated until 1978. It was during this time that Hartmann obtained three degrees in herbology and homeopathic medicine, one of which was from a diploma mill. Thereafter Hartmann moved to New Hampshire to begin The New England Salem Children's Village, which still operates in Rumney, New Hampshire. He was Executive Director of NESCT for five years, and on its board for over 25 years. NESCT's child-care model was based on that of the German Salem InternationalSalem International
Salem is an international humanitarian and environmental organisation actively working for peace throughout the world. Originally founded in 1957 by Gottfried Müller and a circle of friends in Stuttgart, Germany, to provide shelter for the homeless, Salem can now be found in many different...
organization, and through his affiliation with that group he helped start international relief programs in Uganda, Colombia, Russia, Israel, India, Australia, and several other countries between 1979 and today.
Hartmann founded International Wholesale Travel and its retail subsidiary Sprayberry Travel in Atlanta in 1983, a business which in the intervening years has generated over a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue. According to their website, Sprayberry Travel was lauded by the Wall Street Journal in 1984 for being one of the early adopters of frequent travel programs analogous to the recently initiated frequent flyer programs of the airline industry. He sold his share in the business in 1986 and retired with his family to Germany to work with the international relief organization Salem International
Salem International
Salem is an international humanitarian and environmental organisation actively working for peace throughout the world. Originally founded in 1957 by Gottfried Müller and a circle of friends in Stuttgart, Germany, to provide shelter for the homeless, Salem can now be found in many different...
. In the late 1970s, he had been a trainer in advertising and marketing for The American Marketing Centers (now defunct), and in 1987 after returning from Germany founded the Atlanta advertising agency Chandler, MacDonald, Stout, Schneiderman & Poe, Inc., which did business as The Newsletter Factory. He sold his interest in that company in 1996 and retired to Vermont.
Other areas of notability
Hartmann is a writer who has published more than twenty books on diverse topics. The title which won the most critical acclaim is The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. In 1999 he was invited by the Dalai Lama to spend a week in DharamsalaDharamsala
Dharamshala or Dharamsala is a city in northern India. It was formerly known as Bhagsu; it is the winter seat of government of the state of Himachal Pradesh and the district headquarters of the Kangra district....
after the Dalai Lama finished reading this book. Hartmann won the Project Censored
Project Censored
Project Censored is a non-profit, media criticism and investigative journalism project within the Sonoma State University Foundation. It is managed through the School of Social Sciences at the university....
Award in 2004 for Unequal Protection. As a result of a book on spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, The Prophet's Way, he was invited in 1998 to meet Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
.
Trained in the 1970s in Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...
by Richard Bandler
Richard Bandler
Richard Wayne Bandler is an American author and trainer in the field of self-help. He is best known as the co-inventor of Neuro-linguistic programming , a collection of concepts and techniques intended to understand and change human behavior-patterns...
(Hartmann is licensed by Bandler's Society of NLP as both an NLP Practitioner and an NLP Trainer, and Bandler wrote the foreword to his book "Healing ADD"), Hartmann popularized some of its concepts in Cracking the Code (2007), which argues that Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
and Frank Luntz
Frank Luntz
Frank I. Luntz is an American political consultant and pollster. His most recent work has been with the Fox News Channel as a frequent commentator and analyst, as well as running focus groups after presidential debates...
made use of them in the 1980s and 1990s for Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
causes and advocates using them to advance liberalism. His book "Healing ADD" also leans heavily on NLP techniques. His book on the JFK Assassination (written with Lamar Waldron) titled "Ultimate Sacrifice" is cited extensively in the last two chapters of Gore Vidal's recent autobiography as having "finally solved" that case.
Hartmann was one of several contributors to Air America, the Playbook, a 300 plus page collection of essays, transcripts, and interviews by liberal radio personalities. It was published shortly before the 2006 Congressional elections and was on the New York Times Best Seller list for October 8, 2006.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
made a web movie titled "Global Warning" that was inspired by The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight. Hartmann appears in DiCaprio's 2007 documentary The 11th Hour
The 11th Hour (film)
The 11th Hour is a 2007 documentary film, created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, on the state of the natural environment. It was directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners and financed by Adam Lewis and Pierre André Senizergues, and distributed by Warner Independent...
, as well as the feature documentary film Dalai Lama Renaissance
Dalai Lama Renaissance
Dalai Lama Renaissance is a feature length documentary film, produced and directed by Khashyar Darvich, and narrated by actor Harrison Ford. The film documents the Dalai Lama's meeting with the self-titled "Synthesis" group, made up of 40 Western "renaissance" thinkers who hope to use the meeting...
(with Harrison Ford), and Crude Impact
Crude Impact
Crude Impact is a 2006 film written and directed by James Jandak Wood. It is a documentary about the effect of fossil fuels on issues such as global warming, the environmental crisis, society and the questionable practices of oil companies...
.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Hartmann has authored in the area of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorderAttention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
(ADHD) and adult attention-deficit disorder
Adult attention-deficit disorder
Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is the common term used to describe the neuropsychiatric condition attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder when it is present in adults. Up to 60% of children diagnosed with ADHD in early childhood continue to demonstrate notable ADHD symptoms as...
(AADD) and is the creator (first proposed by him in 1978, first published nationally in 1992) of the now well-known hunter vs. farmer theory
Hunter vs. farmer theory
The hunter vs. farmer theory is a hypothesis proposed by Thom Hartmann about the origins of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and adult attention-deficit disorder , suggesting that these conditions may be a result of a form of adaptive behavior.Hartmann developed the hunter vs...
that ADD is an expected evolutionary adaptation
Adaptation
An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
to hunting lifestyles. These individuals have the ability of rapidly shifting their focus and external attention and of holding multiple trains of thought. This ability causes difficulties when they must live and work in cultures in which "farming" – well-planned, predictable, organized and repetitive behaviours – is typical. His first book on the disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder: a Different Perception was described by Scientific American as "innovative and fresh". Hartmann has established specialized schools for children with ADHD, such as The Hunter School in Rumney, New Hampshire
Rumney, New Hampshire
Rumney is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,480 at the 2010 census. The town is located at the southern edge of the White Mountain National Forest.-History:...
, which he cofounded with his wife Louise.
He also operated the "ADD Forum" and "DeskTop Publishing Forum", along with several others, on CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
.
External links
- ThomHartmann.com Official site. Includes information on and streaming of the radio and TV shows, essays, chatroom, and a discussion board.
- Radio program archive at The White Rose Society
- Past episodes of The Big Picture on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- Various video clips at BigPicture.tv Hartmann speaking on various topics.
- Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It, Hartmann talks about his book in a video at Fora TV.
- Thom Hartmann with the Dalai Lama Videos made during the filming of the documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance.
- "When Democracy Fails" Podcast on Google Video.