The 40-Year Shield: How One Law Fractured Trust Between Families and the Healthcare System

She was told her son would never talk, never live independently, never function without lifelong care. She refused to accept it. In this episode, Tracy Slepcevic, bestselling author of Warrior Mom, founder of the Autism Health Summit, and one of the newest members of the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, speaks with Richard Roman to trace the fault line between the families who lost trust in the healthcare system and the institutions that stopped listening. From the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act to the design of her own counter-institutional conference, Tracy reveals what happens when a parent's self-trust becomes the only foundation left, and what it takes to build something new from the wreckage. A conversation about accountability, institutional design, and the question every system should be asking: was this built to serve, or built to protect?