Since we first got to know Thom Hartmann a few years back (as is often the case on the Internet via e-mails and on the phone -- we only actually met him and his wife and partner, Louise, this last weekend when the BuzzFlash Editor, Mark Karlin, was on Thom's show, broadcast nationally out of Portland), he has become a lead high-profile progressive talk show host on Air America.

As we've said in our ongoing series of interviews with progressive talk show hosts, we like the different styles of so many of them. But we've developed a special relationship at BuzzFlash with Thom, who writes a monthly "Independent Thinker" book review exclusively for BuzzFlash.

We've come to find Thom an amazing renaissance man: an author, who manages to write acclaimed books while hosting a daily radio show programs (for a period, he was doing two radio shows a day: his nationally syndicated Air America program and a morning show on the powerhouse Portland progressive station, 62O KPOJ.) He's a traveler, an expert on ADD -- and he and Louise have owned several successful companies. And they're great parents to boot.

And anyone who listens to Thom's program quickly finds out, he's one of those people with an Encyclopedia for a brain.

Anyway, our visit with Thom and Louise inspired us to re-offer Hartmann's incredible book about saving planet earth and our species: "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late" (Revised and Updated).

From the publisher: "While everything appears to be collapsing around us -- ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars -- we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children's children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio's web movie Global Warning, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture?s blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann's comprehensive book, originally published in 1998, has become one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now, with fresh, updated material and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand--and heal--our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources."