This episode aired on Sept. 7, 2012

The conventions are over -- now it's time for some thinking outside the box. So Bill welcomes to his studio Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who's been an independent in Congress for 21 years -- longer than anyone in American history. Sanders talks about jobs, the state of our economy, health care, and the unprecedented impact of big money on the major political parties.

"What you are looking at is a nation with a grotesquely unequal distribution of wealth and income, tremendous economic power on Wall Street, and now added to all of that is big money interests, the billionaires and corporations now buying elections," Sanders tells Bill. "I fear very much that if we don't turn this around, we're heading toward an oligarchic form of society."

Also on the show, Bill talks to Green Party presidential and vice presidential candidates Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, who share their unique perspectives on the intersection of personal missions and modern politics. Stein graduated from Harvard Medical School to become an internist specializing in environmental health. She was a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate in 2002, co-founded the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities in 2003, and represented the Green-Rainbow Party in state races in 2004 and 2006.

Honkala is an anti-poverty activist and community organizer who co-founded the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. A formerly homeless single mother, Honkala became the first woman ever to run for Sheriff of Philadelphia in 2011.