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July 13, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
- Today, July 13, marks 646 days since October 7, 2023. The Hamas-led attack on Simchat Torah resulted in 1,182 fatalities (including 44 Americans) and over 4,000 wounded. 251 hostages (210 alive, 41 dead bodies) were taken during a day of brutal savagery and sexual violence. It was the largest single massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, with more than one in every 10,000 Israelis killed, and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.
- The 50 remaining hostages, 27 known to be dead, 20 thought to be alive, and three of unknown status, include the bodies of two Americans: Omer Neutra and Itay Chen. Releasing all the hostages might not be priorities for Trump and Netanyahu, but it's a top priority for us.
- In today's newsletter, we talk with David Litt, author of It's Only Drowning.
- This Wednesday at noon ET, the Nexus Project is hosting a Zoom event on antisemitism featuring Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Judy Lichtman, Kevin Rachlin, and Stacy Burdett. Details below in the upcoming events section.
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Hi Steve,
Are you drowning under a deluge of headlines that would have been unthinkable ten years ago? Does it seem that our divisions are so wide that we cannot bridge them? Ever thought about surfing? Then I’ve got the book for you: It’s Only Drowning, by David Litt.
I would normally not pick up, let alone buy, a book about learning to surf. But the author, David Litt, is a former Obama speechwriter whose previous books, Thanks, Obama: A Humorous Memoir of the Obama Years, Speechwriting, and Navigating Politics in the Age of Trump and Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think, were good reads.
It’s Only Drowning is about more than Litt’s struggles with depression and his attempts to find solace in surfing. It’s also about his relationship with his brother-in-law, Matt, who loves listening to Joe Rogan and whose personality and music fit the stereotype some of us have of someone who listens to Joe Rogan. Matt happens to be a very good surfer.
Litt and Matt developed a new relationship based on surfing. The title of the book comes from an exchange Litt had with Matt as they were about to enter choppy waters. Matt tells him, “It’s only water.” Very reassuring. Then, as Matt entered the water, he turned and said to him, “It’s only drowning.”
Litt was known as Obama's "comic muse," and his sense of humor makes this book a great read. His book convinced me to never try surfing, but the insights about politics and life, and its illustration of two ways of looking at the world: it’s only water and it’s only drowning (and it's only drowning because that can be the price of making life worth living) make the book well worth your time.
Like all good books, Litt’s book left me with some questions, which he was kind enough to answer via email on Thursday (I met him last year through a Jewish political group). My questions are in bold. His answers are in regular type.
Have you made decisions not related to surfing that might not have made if you hadn’t taken up surfing? In other words, as a practical matter, how has surfing changed how you live your life?
There are so many ways surfing has changed my life outside the water. I think differently about success. I’m better at committing fully, even in the face of uncertainty.
The biggest way surfing changed my life is that it’s made me more courageous. Before I picked up a board, I always thought that fear was something you either overcome or avoid. But surfers have a term: “the flower of fear.” It means that sometimes, fear is actually your body’s way of telling you you’re in the right spot.
One thing we can all agree on is that we live in scary times. But today, there are moments when I’m presented with the chance to do something that frightens me, and instead of shying away, I say, “Oh, that’s the flower of fear!”
You write in your book that you were suffering from depression before taking up surfing. How has surfing changed your outlook on life and on politics, especially since, if anything, the political situation and the world is worse than it was when you started to surf?
Surfing helped me live with joy at a time when you have to be brave just to read the news. I started surfing as a form of escapism – but what I actually learned was that having a hobby that took me out of the real world (and where I couldn’t bring my phone) helped me find the balance to re-engage with the world.
In some ways, this is a book about how I fell back in love with life. And when you love the world – even in difficult times – it’s much easier to fight to make it better.
The political situation today almost seems hopeless. Trump will do his best to stack the deck against Democrats in as many states as he can, through voter suppression and appointments of biased election officials, to prevent Democrats from winning control of Congress in the midterms. Many fear that this is the beginning of the end of our democracy, and all we can do is watch. It’s hard NOT to be depressed. What advice do you have for those who think it’s unrealistic not to think that way?
Two things: I think objectively, the situation is far from hopeless. My grandfather fought in World War II. Growing up, Andrew Goodman’s mother lived in my apartment building, a constant reminder of the sacrifices people made to end Jim Crow. Our country only exists because of a revolution against the most powerful empire in the world at that time. I’m not trying to be Pollyannish here. At the same time, we’ve been through far more hopeless-seeming moments as a country. (Also, as a technical matter, our federated system of elections makes it harder to rig elections, and voter suppression matters on the margins but is unlikely to make the midterms impossible to win.)
The second thing I’d say is, if you’re just watching, that’s depressing. None of us can single-handedly save the country. But there are things all of us can do. Donate money to a cause that needs it. Volunteer. Attend a protest. Call your member of Congress. Action is the best antidote to despair.
Also, get outside and enjoy the summer a little bit. It’s important to remember how great life is for most of us, even now. There’s a lot that’s still worth faving.
You were able to see Matt more as a person than a stereotype as a result of getting to know him through surfing, which did not require you to agree on politics or have similar tastes in music or food. Do you think any of your differences will ever be bridged? If you can now talk to each other agreeably without ever agreeing, what is the point if neither of you can change the other’s mind?
I’d say we’ve changed each other’s mind in small ways. Matt learned he’s a fan of induction stovetops over gas – not for climate-change reasons (which is why I support induction) – but because they make a great breakfast burrito. Matt convinced me that our county’s bag ban in New Jersey is silly and counterproductive – I’d rather have a five-cent bag tax like they do in D.C.
Most importantly, Trump and MAGA win by convincing people that Democrats hate them. When Democrats cut off contact from those with whom they disagree, that demonization becomes a lot easier.
Most Democratic candidates and strategists do not have right-wing brothers-in-law with whom they can bond over a hobby. Based on what you now know about Matt, what advice do you have for Democrats who are trying to reach people like Matt whom they don’t know personally?
First, more Democratic candidates and strategists should spend time with working-class people! If you say, “I’d never spend time with people from this group, but I want their votes,” don’t be surprised when you don’t get their votes.
Second, for a lot of the young men who swung toward Trump, the thing they care about most is not being told what to do. Democrats have to make the case that good government isn’t about controlling your life. It’s about putting you in control of your own life.
Democrats seem very interested in what makes people like Matt tick. People like Matt don’t seem to care at all about why Democrats think the way they do. We seem much more interested in the guys hanging around an Alabama diner than they care about the guys hanging around a street corner in Chicago. Why is that?
With respect, I’d dispute that premise. I think lots of professional Democrats (not all!) are interested in studying people without college degrees – but not actually engaging with or listening to them. I would also say the urban/rural divide this question suggests is a little outdated. In 2024, we lost ground among basically all groups of men without college degrees – and some of the biggest losses came among voters in cities.
You wrote that for a while, you were afraid to ask Matt about a decal on his car that looked to you like a white nationalist symbol. You were relieved, when you finally asked, to find out it that it was just a clothing store logo. But what if it really had been a white nationalist symbol? Yes, it’s good to be friends with people who are different from us, but isn’t there a line somewhere, and how should we treat people who cross that line, people who might seem nice, might seem like someone we can go surfing as long as we don’t talk politics, but whose politics are so reprehensible that we can’t–or is there no line?
Yes, there’s a line – and exactly where that line is going to be is different for everybody. But I think these days, we tend to be too eager to draw that line. If someone makes me unsafe, or makes hate their whole identity, I have no interest in spending time with them. But most of the Trump voters and/or Joe Rogan fans I know don’t fall into that category. The default should be a willingness to keep people in our lives. I worry that the default is becoming pushing people away.
What made you keep trying to get better at surfing when, at least at first, it seemed that you weren’t that good at it?
I think deep down, I understood that I was learning about more than just surfing. Very early on in the book, I write about the first time I realized that becoming a slightly better surfer was making me a slightly better person. From there, I followed that idea to its logical conclusion: what might becoming a much better surfer do?
You are a very good writer. How did you write this book? Did you commit to writing a certain number of words each day, or to write for a certain amount of time each day?
Thank you! I tried to finish a first draft of a chapter (roughly 6000 words) every two weeks – so, about 1,000 words a day, and then time to go back and edit. But some days the words come easy, and some days you struggle to get a single usable paragraph, and that’s part of the process.
Rewriting took nearly as much time as writing the book did, and that was probably a chapter per week, with multiple passes through. For me, the ultimate compliment is when someone says that the book is easy to read, because that’s a sign of how hard I worked on it!
Did you ever have writer’s block and if you did, what did you do about it?
Give yourself permission to write something bad. Once you take the pressure off, and say, “Okay, this will stink, and then I’ll move on,” you can get the first words down on the page – and that’s usually the biggest hurdle.
You’ve been described as the “comic muse” for President Obama, and your sense of humor comes through in the book. How do you do it? Do you have any formulas or techniques that you use to write humorously, or does it just naturally come to your mind?
The summer after my junior year of college, I interned at the comedy newspaper The Onion. Each week the paper ran about 25 headlines. To get those headlines, they sifted through about 625 submissions from some of the funniest professional comedy writers in the country.
I learned an important lesson from that – the best way to write one good joke is to write several dozen bad ones.
Have you decided what your next book will be about?
This was book one of a two-book deal for a pair of memoirs. So I need to do something interesting and write about it. But I haven’t quite figured out what that’s going to be. I’m open to suggestions!
What three works of fiction and three works of non-fiction, aside from books that you or your friends have written, are you recommending these days?
Fiction:
Tilt, by Emma Pattee
Jade Dragon Mountain, by Elsa Hart
The Tattoo Murder Case, by Akimitsu Takagi
Non-Fiction:
The Spinach King, by John Seabrook
The Good Mothers, by Alex Perry
Boss, by Mike Royko
If you were asked to recommend a weekly newsletter on pro-Israel politics, what newsletter would you recommend?
Whichever one most recently allowed me to commandeer it and talk about my book.
Corrections. I'm entitled to my own opinions but not to my own facts, so I appreciate it when readers bring errors to my attention. No one pointed out any errors in last week's newsletter.
Upcoming Event. At noon ET on Wednesday, July 16, join the Nexus Project on Zoom for a conversation on safeguarding democratic institutions and addressing the rise of antisemitism featuring Judy Lichtman and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), followed by a discussion on The Nexus Strategy with Nexus DC Director Kevin Rachlin and Public Policy Strategist Stacy Burdett. RSVP here for the Zoom link.
In Case You Missed It:
- Ben Samuels writes that Netanyahu's visit to Washington last week, which "had been framed as a potentially historic visit now seems, in hindsight, like something that could have just as easily been handled over email."
Social Posts of the Week. Adam Kinzinger, JoJofromJerz, The Bulwark, and Don Winslow.
Thread of the Week. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).
Video Clip of the Week. Beach Boys Sing Dave's Top Ten List Numbers.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. Sufin' USA.
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I periodically update my posts on the IHRA definition of antisemitism and on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism. My definition of "pro-Israel" is here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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