The Misinterpretation of Metaphors from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

Back in March Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords made a statement responding to Sarah Palin's anti-healthcare reform campaign, saying, "we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun site over our district." Could metaphors in that statement have had an effect on who Jared Loughner targeted in Arizona over the weekend? Our guest James Geary, a journalist and author of the upcoming book, "I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World," says that metaphors in political rhetoric and imagery have a profound and largely non-conscious effect on us. Listen to the podcast.