Standing For Medical Freedom — One State At A Time With Leslie Manookian

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What happens when one state passes a law that challenges the status quo around medical choice? Could it spark a movement across the country? And how are Americans really thinking about medical freedom today?

Leslie Manookian, President and Founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, joins us to discuss what has unfolded since the passage of the Idaho Medical Freedom Act—and why it may be just the beginning. Leslie shares how this legislation has inspired a growing coalition of organizations working together to advance similar protections in states nationwide.

She also reveals the results of a new national poll conducted in partnership with the Brownstone Institute, offering surprising insight into how Americans view informed consent, personal autonomy, and the role of government in healthcare.

In this conversation, Leslie explains how the Idaho law is being strengthened, what’s happening in other states, and how individuals can get involved in shaping the future of health freedom in their own communities.

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Episode Transcript

Within the below transcript the bolded text is Kendall Nelson and the regular text is Leslie Manookian.

Welcome to the show. Sometimes, a single piece of legislation becomes more than a local victory. It becomes a catalyst, sparking new conversations, new alliances, and a deeper examination of the rights and responsibilities we hold when it comes to our health. This is episode 574, and our guest is Leslie Manookian. Leslie is the President and Founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund.

She joins us for part 1 of a special 2-part series to discuss what has happened since the passage of the Idaho Medical Freedom Act, how that legislation has created momentum in other states, and how she and a growing coalition are working to advance similar protections across the country. She also shares insights from new national polling sponsored by Health Freedom Defense Fund and the Brownstone Institute that explores how Americans are thinking about medical freedom and what those findings may signal about broader cultural shifts around autonomy, trust, and public health.

Before we get into the conversation, we invite you to make an investment in your health by purchasing more of your food from local farms. It’s good for you and for the economy in your community. Take the 50% pledge. Spend at least half of your food budget supporting local farms. It’s a simple way to keep farms that are doing it right afloat. We have resources to guide you at the 50-50 Pledge. Thanks in advance. Now, we welcome Leslie Manookian.

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Welcome to the show, Leslie.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is so incredibly meaningful for me to have you on as my first guest because we go way back. Full disclosure to the audience, we are best of friends. We made our movie, The Greater Good, together about the vaccine controversy in 2011. Since then, I have had the great privilege of watching you become one of the most determined and effective leaders in the health freedom movement. You have fought multiple successful lawsuits around the country. You are even writing legislation and helping bills get passed. Thanks to you, our home State of Idaho is the freest state in the nation. Why don’t you tell us why?

Idaho Medical Freedom Act

It’s so great to be here with you. I’m so excited for you to embark on this new project. It’s so fun. I have to say to the audience that we became friends in 2007. The way that we became friends was sitting at a luncheon together, and I started telling you about vaccines. You had a 6 or an 8-month-old daughter at the time. It opened your eyes. You were so willing to listen and hear.

It wasn’t until five years later that the movie even came out. We started our friendship back in 2007. I have also watched you grow from being like, “This is an interesting topic,” to being fearless and willing to engage pretty much anybody in your very thoughtful, gentle, and graceful way. It’s a wonder to see. I’m super excited for you in this new chapter of your life doing the show.

Back to the Medical Freedom Act, everybody will recall, if you’ve watched the episodes about it. In 2025, in Idaho, we were able to pass a bill that I had written called the Idaho Medical Freedom Act. That bill outlawed medical mandates for almost all Idahoans. I say almost all Idahoans because there was an exclusion for any recipients of CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those are hospital workers, unfortunately.

 

Do you know what has been disappointing? They don’t show up to help us when we try to get the bills passed. It’s very interesting. I hear from a few people saying, “We want you to pass a bill that protects us.” When you go to try to argue for the bill, they don’t show up. It’s disappointing. It’s been frustrating. It didn’t apply to employees of institutions or any kind of businesses that take CMS funding.

We didn’t touch the school code because vaccinations in Idaho are already voluntary, and because we specifically reference that in our bill. What’s happened is that schools and daycares are not honoring the bill. They’re not honoring the law. It was effective July 1st, 2025. They’re not following it, so we are back in the legislature. We are going to remove the language that pertains to school and daycare mandates. It’s hopefully being printed. We’re live. It’s March 18th, 2026. That’s going to happen.

We’re also writing in a new clause which says that no town, county, locale, or any kind of political subdivision of the state cannot violate this law. The reason for that is that certain areas in Idaho have tried to pass their own laws, their own local ordinances, to outlaw or to allow private schools and daycares to exclude unvaccinated students.

As long as it is a private school or daycare, they claim that they can exclude people. In Moscow, Idaho, they’re even saying that public schools can exclude them because they’ve written this local ordinance. We are removing that. This is super exciting. It will mean that Idaho is the very first state to have no school mandate in law, nothing in statute, after we finish this. I’m super excited about that.

That’s so good. You did the Idaho Medical Freedom Act. Now, you’re going to have the new bill that’s, hopefully, going to even strengthen that. I want to hear about the coalition that you’re building. You’re taking this to several other states. It sounds like there are a lot of organizations behind you, and that things are going well.

Medical Freedom Act Coalition

The bill was signed by the governor on April 4th of 2025. After that happened, you can imagine there was an outpouring of support and excitement. Everywhere I went and spoke at different conferences and events, people were coming up to me, saying, “I want to work with you. We want to work with you. Our organization wants to team up. Let’s do this.”

I was already in touch with Leah Wilson and Jill Hines of Stand for Health Freedom, who are dear friends and fantastic leaders in this arena as well. They are a 501(c)(4), whereas the Health Freedom Defense Fund, my organization, is a 501(c)(3). (C)(4)s can do more lobbying than (c)(3)s can. (C)(3)s are limited to about 10% to 20%, whereas (c)(4)s, that’s what their purpose is. They have a lot of experience, and they have teams. They have state directors and teams in over 40 states.

Jill Hines is fantastic at helping to draft legislation. What we did was we took the Idaho bill, and we made it more neutral so it could apply to any state. We created a model bill out of it, and we perfected it so that any state could take it. As I met all these different people, especially in August, September, October, and November 2025, everywhere I went, people were like, “We want to work with you.” I thought, “Maybe we should start a coalition.”

In the early part of 2026, Health Freedom Defense Fund, my group, together with Stand for Health Freedom, Leah and Jill, started the Medical Freedom Acts Coalition. Including Stand for Health Freedom and Health Freedom Defense Fund, there are fifteen organizations that have agreed to do this and signed on. This is huge because I’ve never seen this kind of collaboration or coordination in the Health Freedom Movement before, so it’s exciting.

We are singularly focused on getting Medical Freedom Acts passed in as many states as possible. Legislation that has either modeled after the Idaho bill or our new model bill or is removing vaccine mandates has been introduced in thirteen states. It’s fantastic. We have a Signal chat when we talk about all the bills and what’s going on. We update.

The Health Freedom Movement is singularly focused on passing Medical Freedom Acts in as many states as possible.

People send out calls to action. The group is fantastic. It’s Health Freedom Defense Fund and Stand for Health Freedom. I’m sure I will forget some of them, but Children’s Health Defense, Feds for Freedom, and The Independent Medical Alliance, which used to be FLCCC. I said Feds for Freedom. I can’t believe that. I hate it when I do this.

How about Weston A. Price Foundation?

The Weston A. Price Foundation was one of the first, given that I’m on the board and dear friends with Sally. We are so unified in our support for individual rights and freedoms and our opposition to any kind of coercive medical mandates. Weston Price Foundation, IPAK, and Freedom Council. I’m so sorry to anybody that I’m forgetting because there are so many other groups on there. I could go to the Signal Chat and pull up more. Many groups have supported this effort, and it’s fantastic to see.

The Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom is Twila Brase’s organization. There are many others. I am so grateful for each and every one of them. They’re helping support. They’re helping with boots on the ground. They’re providing experts. They’re providing communications expertise. Doctors will go and fly in, appear, or Zoom into a hearing so they can testify. It has been fantastic.

Arizona introduced one of the bills, and it has made it through both chambers. I’m not sure if it’s completely through the Senate, but it has been made through the House. I believe it’s in the Senate somewhere. It might have made it. Kansas did something incredible, something that we weren’t able to do. Let me tell you. They introduced a bill that will allow or impose a $50,000 fine for any violations of the Medical Freedom Act that they intend to pass there. This is so exciting.

We’ve seen Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, New York, Hawaii, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Idaho. It’s incredible what’s happening. The other thing, which I haven’t even told you about yet, is that in mid-January 2026, I went on the MAHA Action Hub call. There are 7,000 people watching it live when the call happens, and there are plenty of people from the media.

Secretary Kennedy made a comment to everybody, like, “I see a bunch of friends here. I see Leslie Manookian,” which was very sweet and unnecessary. What happened after that was a deluge of texts, emails, and phone calls from major media. They are clearly freaked out by this Medical Freedom Coalition, the mainstream. I’m thinking that that means that we’re right over the target, trying to do this individually in the States. It’s very exciting.

What happens if somebody wants to get involved? What if an individual wants to get involved? What if another organization wants to join the coalition? How do they do that?

Organizations that want to join the coalition certainly can. We are working primarily. In the coalition are mostly national health freedom groups, and then we team with Stand for Health Freedom’s state directors and their teams in the states or their partners. In Idaho, we have Health Freedom Idaho. Health Freedom Idaho teams up with Stand for Health Freedom to do this kind of work.

What happens is we work with the local state organization because they’re the ones with the boots on the ground and the relationships in the legislatures and the states. If people want to get involved, there are two ways to do it. You can join one of the organizations that are coalition members. We listed them in a press release on our website under the Medical Freedom Act Coalition. You click on Learn on our website, and then you scroll back, and you’ll find it. It was announced in early January 2026.

You can join Stand for Health Freedom, which is the largest 501(c)(4) advocating for health freedom across the nation. They have an email list of something like a million people. It’s a big thing. They are fantastic. They send out great action alerts, calls to action. You can join other groups. Join the Weston Price Foundation if you’re not a member, or join any of the other coalition members. If you’re in a state where there’s an active health freedom organization, then join that, too. That way, you’ll be sure that you’re plugged into what’s going on.

In an ideal world, let’s say all the states adopt a Medical Freedom Act. What does that look like? Paint me a picture of what society looks like if the legislation gets passed and comes through.

Federalism And State Health Laws

Let me explain something quickly. The federal government is not allowed to enact health laws. Those public health powers are reserved to the states by the Constitution. Health laws are state laws. This is how you may remember in 2022, Health Freedom Defense Fund, my organization, stopped the federal mask mandate by suing the CDC over the travel mask mandate.

We were triumphant and successful in that because the CDC doesn’t have the authority to tell individual Americans what to do. All the CDC can do is inspect, fumigate, and disinfect animals and articles being brought into the country or across state lines. Nothing in the statute says anything about humans. They said that they could do it. They claimed this. They assert this power that was not delegated to them by Congress. That’s to explain that all this is the purview of the states.

What ultimately could have happened is if every state passed some kind of Medical Freedom Act, then you could have 50 different kinds of laws. That’s the whole purpose of federalism, so that the states can try and pursue their own path and prove in the real world what’s the best approach to something. Everyone can either emulate it or not. They can choose their own path, but the point is that that’s what our system is supposed to do.

 

It’s interesting because HHS has changed CDC’s recommendations about vaccinations in the last couple of months. They went from recommending over 70 doses of 18 vaccines to recommending only 11 different vaccines. I forget how many exact doses it is. It’s like 30 or 40 doses. What’s happened as a result of that is that some States like California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii are even trying to create their own block and have said that they are going to no longer follow what the CDC says.

California has even gone so far as to say it’s going to team up and join this small advisory group at the World Health Organization and follow the World Health Organization. What this does is it facilitates a different approach to public health. That’s the way that our system is supposed to be. A bunch of states in New England are doing the same thing. They’re trying to push their own path. Those two groups are pushing back against Secretary Kennedy and the far less-biased people who are in position at the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

What’s happening is that there’s a huge fight going on between the states that believe in freedom and recognize that the COVID shots were the biggest unforced error in the history of public health and medicine. Those states want to pretend that they didn’t screw up, didn’t deceive the people, and are going to tighten the screws. I have to say one other thing about this.

To me, what this reflects is that there are certain states that are pushing for Agenda 2030, which is part of the United Nations. It’s this whole effort to enact a new one-world government. That’s what they’re pushing for. Some of these states are hardcore on this. Other states are trying to protect the principles that most Americans hold dear, our system of government, and the principles that underpin our system of government, which is all about freedom, individual responsibility, and pursuing our own path. You could see this tapestry of responses or different approaches to this.

Action For Health Freedom In Restrictive States

What would you say to the person who’s living in California that has roots in California and doesn’t want to leave? They can’t stand that they are being affected by these kinds of laws and rules that take away their health freedoms. What can that person do?

Move. I say it jokingly. There are some people who’ve been able to find a way around it in some states. The truth is, it’s very hard in the states that are hardcore on this. California didn’t take away philosophical exemptions years ago. California took away all but the narrowest of medical exemptions. They made it even worse in 2019 right before COVID, supposedly. It’s hard to get any kind of exemption in the state of California. The only way that you can get one for your child is after your child has suffered a catastrophic injury. You can only get it for that single vaccination. Not for all vaccinations.

There are all sorts of draconian laws that are in place. If a doctor gives out more than five medical exemptions in a year, then they will get pulled in front of the licensing board. They review schools that have too many exemptions in their school, and things like this. They installed a medical czar at the state level who reviews all these exemptions. It’s so hard. Here’s the other thing. It’s like n COVID. Let’s say you fake your paper or your passport card. You’re feeding the beast. That’s what you’re doing.

I couldn’t agree more.

I know it’s the easier way, and I know everybody has to make their own choices. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we either stand up and say, “No more.” Which may mean moving out of state, homeschooling, doing whatever we have to do, or we’re going to get what we deserve. I know that sounds callous, and I don’t mean it that way at all. The truth is we have to fight for what we believe in. Eternal vigilance is the cost of freedom. You don’t get freedom without being eternally vigilant. This is the issue.

For 100 years, Americans have taken their eye off the ball. They’ve gotten fat and happy. They’re also bogged down by debt, the declining purchasing power of their wages, two working parents, and all these kinds of things. It’s horrible what’s going on, but you can make it happen. I know people who do. You don’t have as many toys and things like this. You have a tighter budget, but you can make it happen if that’s what you want to. I believe if there’s a will, there’s a way. If you don’t like what’s happening in California, then I would encourage anybody who can to move. If you can’t, then you’ll have to find a way to make it work for you there.

Results Of The National Medical Freedom Poll

I can’t agree more that we need to stand up. We need to put our names on things. We need to go testify. We need to do all the things that are necessary. There’s a growing number of people who feel that way. This leads me perfectly into what you’ve done. You put out a national poll with the Brownstone Institute. You sponsored it. I’d love to hear what the results were. It was about medical freedom and how Americans feel. Tell us. Did anything surprise you about the results?

Let me say one other thing on the whole issue of what you can do if you’re in one of those horrible states. California is looking to potentially ban homeschooling. We are never going to fight our way out of tyranny. When things were bad in our area, I gave up my gym membership because I wasn’t going to go in there and wear a mask and a scarlet letter that I was unvaccinated. I wasn’t going to condone this authoritarianism, these edicts by business owners. We have to stand by our principles. That’s the only way that we are ever going to get ourselves out of this situation.

My point is that we have to sacrifice. Our freedom isn’t going to be purchased because we don’t pay attention or don’t show up. It’s not easy. I didn’t go out to eat. I lost a lot of friends. I stopped going to many stores that would not allow me in. My life changed. My home became a refuge for others. I was throwing parties, doing all these things, and getting everybody together to inspire and empower people to stand up. That’s the point. That’s what we have to do.

We both lost friends, but I think we both gained more than we lost. You’ve got to tell us about this new poll that you did and what the results were.

There’s a polling company called Fabrizio. This company, Fabrizio, is the pollster for the presidential administration. Strangely, they put out a poll in December 2025 that made it sound like the secretary’s health policies are incredibly unpopular. I thought, “I can’t believe that Americans don’t support informed consent and the right to choose our own medical intervention. This seems so strange.”

What happened was in January 2026, they put out another poll. This poll was even harder and had even harsher results on it about how unpopular any kind of research, interest, or talking from the HHS or any of its daughter agencies was with the electorate. It was going to lead to them potentially losing the midterms. This is what they were saying, “It’s unpopular with voters. Stop talking about vaccines.” That was the message from the polls and from the administration, it would appear.

I was incredibly distraught about this. I was talking with my senior strategist, someone who’s on my team, and he’s like, “We should do a poll.” I said, “That’s a great idea. We should.” You read these polls, and the polls are worded and say things like, “Do you support proven safe and effective vaccinations for measles and mumps?” It’s so rigged. It’s not, “Do you believe in forced medicine? Do you support these? Do you believe in the necessity of proven safe vaccinations?”

All these questions are so loaded. “Do you believe other people should be able to risk public health by pursuing their own path?” Nobody would ever ask a question like this if they wanted a genuine answer. These polls were contrived and engineered in order to elicit the responses that they want, so they could then say, “This is unpopular. Shut Bobby down.” That’s what it was about.

What happened was my strategist said, “Why don’t we do our own poll?” That very day, I’d been asking to be put in touch with a pollster by the name of Zogby Strategies, which has been around for 40 years. They’re very reputable, accomplished pollsters. I got connected to one of the Zogby’s that day. I was trying to get in touch with them for something else, for someone who was considering running for office and wanted to run a poll. What ended up happening was it was the perfect time because my team members said, “Why don’t we do this?” within minutes of me being connected with the Zogby’s.

I said, “How much does it cost?” and all this kind of stuff, and got all that data. I thought, “Maybe I’ll see if Jeffrey wants to do it.” Jeffrey Tucker is the President and Founder of the Brownstone Institute, which has been a refuge for freedom fighters during the whole COVID era. They’ve been writing the truth. They’ve been speaking out, many people who lost their jobs, such as doctors, researchers, scientists, and PhDs.

He has been fantastic. He was also writing a lot about how bad these polls were. I thought, “Maybe Jeffrey would want to do it with us.” I reached out to him, and he was like, “This is a great idea.” Within one week, we had created a 50-question poll, and it went out to 1,000 people who had to be very likely voters to be considered appropriate for polling. We asked them 50 different questions with a bunch of demographic questions as well. The responses we got were staggering.

If you believe what the media is telling you or what these other pollsters like Fabrizio are telling you that Americans don’t want freedom. They don’t believe in informed consent. They don’t believe that you should be able to choose your own path. They don’t believe in any of this and in mandates. All this kind of stuff, this is what the poll said.

I’m going to read these to you because I don’t want to try to remember them all. When we first got the results back, we had a call with the pollsters with Jeremy Zogby. He said, “The pollsters told us that they never see supermajorities in any kind of poll. Let alone something that is supposedly so controversial.” A super majority in a legislature means two-thirds. A super majority generally means 67% or higher. Listen to this.

Ninety-one percent of respondents said that they believe in the right to informed consent for prescription medications, vaccinations, and all medical interventions. Fabrizio wants you to think this is unpopular. One other thing to say is that this was 37% Republicans, 36% Democrats, and then the rest were independents. It was a very even sampling cross-sectioning. When you got into the questions, it was more Democrats who answered. You can’t possibly argue that this was somehow rigged, or it was over-sampling of freedom-fighting-leaning people, or anything like that. That was one thing that was incredible.

The next thing, which I thought was so exciting, was that Americans have the right to refuse medical treatment for themselves for 88%. Doctors should be able to discuss vaccine concerns openly without fear of backlash from their medical board. Eighty-seven percent support the right to make one’s own medical choices and believe that it’s a basic human right that should be protected by law.

Eighty-seven percent support the right to make their own medical choices and believe it is a basic human right that should be protected by law.

Give us an example of some of the questions that you asked. I watched a little something on this with you, and you were saying that it made a difference if you said, “Do you support the use of aluminum in vaccines?” versus, “Do you support the use of aluminum in medical products?”

It was slightly different than that, but it’s similar. I want to say something else that’s cool then I’ll get to that. Seventy-six percent of Americans believe that health insurance should cover medical care of a person’s choice, meaning holistic and alternative health treatments. Isn’t that great?

That’s so good.

Sixty-nine percent support the efforts of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct additional vaccine safety research. That’s very interesting. Let me tell you what happened when I phrased it a different way. When we asked, “Do you think it’s worthwhile investigating the effects of thimerosal, a mercury-based compound, aluminum, polysorbate 80, polyethylene glycol, and formaldehyde used in everyday medical products?” It went from what I told you, 69% to 78%.

When you take the word vaccine out, but you ask them whether all of those chemicals should be studied for safety. Nearly 80% of the people said that they support it. When you put the word vaccine in there, then it’s 69%. It shows you how reactive the term vaccination is and how it’s used to manipulate people. It’s a religion, vaccinations. That’s interesting. When you ask it without the word vaccination in there and talk about the ingredients, then people support even higher. Sixty-nine percent is still great, but 78% is even higher.

That’s great. What I can’t believe is, who are these people that don’t want the ingredients studied further? Especially when you take the word vaccine out of it. Where do they find these people who think that they don’t want something like aluminum studied if they know that they’re going to be injecting it or ingesting it? It doesn’t make any sense to me.

It’s interesting. Think about informed consent. Six percent of people do not believe that every individual has the right to informed consent. What does that tell you? It tells you that we have a portion of our population who are truly authoritarians, who believe that it’s their right to tell others what to do and how to live their lives. Four percent said they were unsure. Especially when it comes to vaccinations. Vaccines were in that statement. They are focused on that and probably think that you don’t have the right to choose not to take a vaccination. That’s the problem. It’s crazy.

Part of the problem, too, is that they believe so wholeheartedly in these agencies that they think are meant to protect us, like the CDC and the FDA. It’s like a pediatric doctor who has been giving vaccines for the longest time. It’s so hard for them to look at the research and realize, “Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this,” because perhaps they’ve harmed a lot of kids. There’s going to be that population that has to believe that there’s something bigger than them that’s taking care of them.

Public Support For Removing Vaccine Manufacturer Liability Shields

That’s a big part of it. There’s also this whole thing that Mark Twain said, that it’s easier to fool a man than to convince him he’s been fooled. We asked a question, “Should the existing law for COVID-19, the PREP Act, which shields COVID vaccine makers from liability for vaccines, be removed?” Twenty-eight percent said no. They don’t think that COVID vaccine manufacturers should be liable for their products. Only 60% said they should.

Even more staggering, it’s almost the same, but 27% of the public said that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which shields children’s vaccination manufacturers from liability for their products. That should not be repealed. Twenty-seven percent said that. Only 59% said they should. Only 58% of respondents said that Fauci should be held accountable for his actions. Thirty-two percent said he shouldn’t.

This touches on something else. One is, people want to believe in the agencies, but for the overall faith in the agencies, a third of the people do not trust the agencies anymore for different reasons. There’s the bigger issue, which is that they don’t want to think that they endangered themselves or that they were fooled. That’s a big part of it as well.

We asked voters, “Would you support a candidate who upholds transparency and wants to reduce conflicts of interest in health agencies?” Seventy-nine percent agreed. If you ask it that way, then they’re okay with it. It’s interesting. These questions trigger certain self-defense mechanisms, certain reactions, and training in their brain that leads them to think a certain way about a certain issue. If you sanitize it, take a step back, and say, “What about transparency and responsibility?” They’re all for it, but even 9% said they don’t want more transparency. Who are these people?

Lack Of Civics Education And Constitutional Understanding

This is where everything goes back to. Our kids, young people, for decades, have not been taught Civics. They have not been taught why our constitution is written the way it is and how revolutionary our system of government is. In that, we have a bill of rights that doesn’t protect our rights. It is a restraint on the government.

For decades, our kids and young people haven’t been taught Civics—why the Constitution was written as it was or how revolutionary our government is. Even our Bill of Rights doesn’t always protect our rights.

The First Amendment doesn’t say that we have the right to freedom of speech. It says that the government shall not infringe our right to free speech or our right to assemble, petition the government, or express our religion. There’s a difference. If you have a law that protects your right, that’s one thing. This says that the government can’t do it.

Our founding documents are a restraint on the government, not on the people. That is so different from anything we see anywhere else in the world. The problem is, it’s not being taught. A lot of people who are 30 and younger are not being taught about why it’s so important that we have freedom of speech. It’s not to protect speech we agree with.

It’s to protect speech that we don’t agree with. It’s to ensure that we can always criticize the government. That’s what it’s there for. That’s a part of it, too. Our education system is doing a great disservice to our nation and to our young. Generations are growing up who don’t understand why they should cherish our Bill of Rights and our system of government.

It’s also interesting, isn’t it? For now, we have to wrap up. I’m going to ask you one last question. It’s a question I’m going to ask each of my guests at the end of the show. If the reader could do one thing to improve their health, what would that one thing be?

Getting Engaged For Health Freedom

There are so many things, but I think that you can’t be healthy and well if you don’t have a government that respects you. Although this doesn’t sound like health advice, it is. Get engaged. That’s the most important thing. You won’t be able to pursue your own health if you don’t have a government that serves you. It’s incumbent upon each and every one of us to get engaged.

That’s so beautifully said. I couldn’t agree more. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We will have you back for part two.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks. Bye.

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Our guest was Leslie Manookian. To learn more about her work, visit Health Freedom Defense Fund. Stay with us. This is part one of our conversation. We’ll continue with a deeper look at Leslie’s potential case before the Supreme Court and her newest effort to help lead the COVID justice resolution. She also gives us a sneak peek into a citizen petition she is organizing, calling for an end to geoengineering.

Here’s a review from one of our readers. This comes from LauraGreen49. “I love these episodes. Our lives have been so commercialized and dominated by big corporate money-making schemes. This information helps break it all down. I want to buy a farm so I can do this all by myself. My son was expressing gratitude for his homegrown breakfast the other day, and I realized we don’t pay that much attention to supermarket food.”

Laura, thank you. That truly means a lot. Knowing how these conversations are making a difference in your home and family is exactly why we do this work. If you’re enjoying the show, we’d be grateful if you’d take a moment to leave a rating or review wherever you tune in. Your feedback helps others discover the show and become part of this growing community. Thank you for spending this time with us. Be well, be nourished, and be free.

 

About Leslie Manookian

Leslie Manookian is president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), a nonprofit which seeks to rectify health injustice through education, advocacy, and legal challenges to unjust mandates, laws, and policies that undermine our health freedoms and human rights. Under her leadership, HFDF has sued government and private businesses overturning medical mandates such as the federal travel mask mandate in 2022 and twice halting the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Covid vaccine mandate for employees. She wrote and presented the Idaho Medical Freedom Act to the Idaho legislature, landmark legislation that passed April 4, 2025, making Idaho the first state in the nation to outlaw medical mandates for almost all. She is a former successful Wall Street business executive, documentary filmmaker, and qualified homeopath. She conceived, wrote and produced The Greater Good, an award-winning documentary exploring vaccines. She serves on the boards of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Health Freedom Idaho, and the Health Freedom Foundation. She has been featured in hundreds of TV, radio, print, and internet interviews as well as appearing at numerous conferences. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a BA from Middlebury College, and M.L.C.Hom from Lakeland College of Homeopathy and PHom from the Academy of Practical Homeopathy.

 

Important Links

• Leslie Manookian on Facebook
• Leslie Manookian on X
• Leslie Manookian on Instagram
• Health Freedom Defense Fund
• Health Freedom Defense Fund on Facebook
• Health Freedom Defense Fund on Instagram
• Heatlh Freedom Defense Fund on Rumble
• Conversations on Health Freedom on Apple Podcasts
• Conversations on Health Freedom on Spotify
• 50-50 Pledge – The Weston A. Price Foundation
• Nourishing Our Children on Facebook
• News – Health Freedom Defense Fund
• Brownstone Institute
• Stand for Health Freedom
• John Zogby Strategies
• Jeffrey Tucker on LinkedIn

 

Episode Sponsors

• New Biology Clinic
• Paleovalley

 

 

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