PN | Weekly #25: July 26, 2026

“Optimal mental health requires that your whole brain be made of the right stuff, so if you have a mental (or physical) health problem of any kind, the first place to look isn’t your medicine cabinet, it’s your pantry.”

GEORGIA EDE, MD

Happy Sunday, Heroic!

Michael here. 👋

Hope you had a great week!

John Wooden became the world’s winningest basketball coach by focusing on the fundamentals.

Doing all of the little things few people notice and nobody claps for.

This week's new Philosopher's Note, on Metabolical by Dr. Robert Lustig, is a testament to why that quiet, unglamorous work matters more than almost anything else, in the areas that matter most.

“The holy grail of Modern Medicine is you can't fix healthcare until you fix health; and you can't fix health until you fix the food. Everyone is talking about healthcare, few people are talking about health, and nobody is talking about the food.”

Lustig's whole argument is that modern medicine treats symptoms, not disease. We chase the fix (the prescription, the procedure, the supplement) while the actual root cause, what we're eating, meal after meal, goes untouched.

Don’t paint brown leaves green and expect anything to change. You need to fix the roots.

This applies far beyond food.

We do this everywhere. The relationship soothed over with a nice gesture instead of a real conversation. The business problem patched with a new hire instead of a fixed process or change in strategy. The energy crash “solved” with caffeine instead of sleep.

Symptom management. Not root work.

At the very end of the book, Lustig gives us the cure for that too:

“You have the vote... your fork. Your vote is tallied immediately. And you get to vote twenty-one times a week... Vote early, vote often.”

Three votes a day. Every day.

What are you actually voting for, in the food (and the decisions, and the conversations) you keep choosing instead of the ones you're avoiding?

Every action you take is a vote for, or against, the person you want to be in the world.

Cast a real one today.

Wishing you and yours a great week!

Day 1. All in. Let's go.

-Michael

New on Philosopher's Notes TV

This week, Brian is back at the chalkboard to explore How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov.

How do you make better decisions when the stakes are high? In this episode, Brian explores how the timeless strategies of chess can help you navigate life's biggest challenges with greater clarity, resilience, and intention. You'll discover practical insights for recovering your center under pressure, developing your own personal rating system, and thinking several moves ahead to create lasting success.