What happens when the systems we were told to trust stop earning that trust?
In this episode of Everyday Ancestral, I sit down with Leslie Manookian, founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund, to talk about medical freedom, personal responsibility, fear, public health, and why so many people are waking up to the fact that health cannot be outsourced to institutions alone.
Leslie’s journey started on Wall Street, where she heard something from a pharmaceutical CEO that changed the way she saw the world. From there, she began questioning the narratives around vaccines, public health, medical mandates, and personal sovereignty. That path eventually led her to create Health Freedom Defense Fund and help shape the Idaho Medical Freedom Act.
Why This Matters to You
Feeling like health decisions have become harder to trust? Leslie Manookian challenges you to look beyond the surface of medical messaging and ask who benefits when people are afraid, confused, or pressured into compliance. Instead of outsourcing your discernment, she encourages you to take responsibility for the choices that affect your body, your children, and your family’s future.
Wondering where the line is between public health and private medical freedom? Leslie makes a clear distinction between protecting the public commons, like clean water, sanitation, and clean air, and intruding into personal medical decisions. This episode asks you to consider whether anyone else should have authority over what goes into, onto, or is done to your body.
Tired of fear driving the conversation around health? Leslie explains how fear can shut down higher thinking, make people more obedient to authority, and keep families stuck in reactive decision-making. Her reminder is simple but powerful: unplug from the fear machine, seek better information, and reconnect with your own ability to think clearly.
Feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility of making health choices in a noisy world? This episode gives you permission to slow down and ask better questions. What information am I consuming? What do I actually believe? What does my body need? What choices help my family become stronger, healthier, and more grounded?
Wondering how ancestral wisdom fits into modern medical freedom? Leslie points to practices like midwifery, community support, whole foods, spiritual grounding, and inner work as reminders that health is not just physical. It is also mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual, and no institution can do that work for you.
Actionable Advice
Take responsibility for your choices. Do not assume institutions will always make the best decisions for your body, your children, or your family. Leslie’s core message is that you are responsible for your life and the consequences of your choices.
Separate public health from private health. Ask whether an issue truly belongs in the public commons or whether it crosses into private medical decision-making.
Unplug from fear-based media. Leslie encourages listeners to step away from mainstream narratives that keep people in fear and seek out independent voices, thoughtful conversations, and deeper reflection.
Pay attention to what your body is telling you. Health is not only physical. Leslie shares how mental, emotional, and spiritual stress can show up in the body and why inner work matters.
Return to ancestral support systems. Leslie points to midwifery as an ancestral practice worth restoring because it reflects community care, embodied wisdom, and a less medicalized view of birth.
Links and Resources to Explore
Health Freedom Defense Fund IG
Health Freedom Defense Fund YouTube
Listen to the Full Episode – Available now on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Leslie went from working inside the world of Wall Street and pharmaceutical investment research to questioning the very systems she once trusted. After learning about vaccine controversy, making the documentary The Greater Good, and watching medical mandates unfold during COVID, she founded Health Freedom Defense Fund to educate, advocate, and litigate in defense of personal rights.
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