• Listen to this segment with George Lakoff

• Listen to the entire program with Sonali Kolhatkar

The outcomes of elections depend upon many things, among them: campaign financing, districting and voter turn-out. But they also depend quite heavily on framing. What that means is that how politicians frame issues to constituents is rather important – often more important than we realize. And usually the most skillful politicians – or most manipulative, depending on how you see it – are the ones who take advantage of events in the news to make their case.

So, with the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the growing threat of Ebola consuming our headlines, it is no surprise that those two issues have dominated political framing.

GUEST: George Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1972. He previously taught at Harvard and the University of Michigan. He is the author of a number of books including the acclaimed bestseller Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, who’s 10th anniversary edition was just released a month ago.