Our special guest this week is New York Times best-selling author and former Obama speechwriter David Litt, who joins us to chat about his new book, “It’s Only Drowning.” I first met David as a colleague in the White House and was excited to read this, his third book, knowing it would certainly reflect his humor, wit, and empathetic insights into the human condition. The book started out as a memoir of his mid-thirties pivot to surfing, but became a platform to connect with his brother-in-law, someone entirely different from the author. The book takes place through the Covid pandemic, which created its own divisions between those who wore masks and those who didn’t, those who got vaccinated and not, so we asked David about whether those kinds of differences seem quaint in light of President Trump’s 4th of July declaration that he hates half of America — those who did not vote for him. Of course, our chat also moved into the dynamics of going into the ocean with sharks in the water — which you can imagine eventually leads to a conversation about Elon Musk’s bid to build a third party.

Also this week, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump Administration to move forward with a new round of federal workforce purges. We compare that to other recent rulings from the Supreme Court that punt ultimate decisions on underlying issues, but in the meantime enable the White House to run roughshod over the other branches of government. Thank you for listening and subscribing!

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