America Cannot Rebuild Until Men Step Up

A rising number of Americans are choosing not to marry or have kids—and the reasons are not mysterious. I connect the dots between corporate greed, stagnant wages, unaffordable childcare and healthcare, and a culture that too often treats women and children as expendable. From lived trauma to public failures of accountability, I make the case that when institutions ignore violence and reward profit at any cost, families retreat for self-preservation.

I lay out why the pay gap is more than a number—it shapes safety, independence, and who gets to build a stable home. We walk through the ripple effects of skyrocketing rent and premiums, and why the math of parenthood no longer works for millions. I share hard truths about impunity in high-profile abuse, the devastating impact on trust, and what it means when survivors are believed last and paperwork is believed first. The throughline is clear: if we want stronger families, we must re-center our systems around those who need protection and support most.

We also face the failures of foster care and proposals that punish trauma instead of treating it, and we challenge the cultural tide that teaches boys to resent women’s boundaries. My call is direct: men must step up—grow emotionally, hold peers accountable, and stop kneeling to power that harms communities. Real change looks like fair pay, accessible childcare, regulated healthcare pricing, trauma-informed care for kids, and a culture that honors safety over status.

If this conversation hits a nerve, lean in. Share it with someone who needs to hear it, leave a review so more people can find it, and subscribe for upcoming guest episodes. What’s the first change you want to see—and what will you do to push it forward?

SoulTech with Shaman Isis Trailer

Transcript

Opening And Personal Stakes

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Soul Tech with Shaman Isis. I'm your hostess with the most us, Cynthia L. Elliot, aka Shaman Isis. And I am doing a solo episode today because I want to touch on a topic that is really near and dear to me. And I'm going to try really hard not to cry in this because it is deeply personal and relates to some incredibly traumatic experiences that I've written about and have also happened to my sisters. I want to talk about the fact that America has got to prioritize children and women in this country. Corporate greed has created a situation in America where families are becoming a thing of the past. Why? Well, because on the one hand, women are just disgusted and sick of dealing with people with men who do not want to evolve. But two, because the corporations have become so greedy, increasing the price of housing and daycare and health care and hospitalization to the point where having a child is a luxury item. And it women don't want to have kids that they don't get to spend any time with anymore. So today we're going to be talking about some of these really serious issues around the declining birth rate and marriage rate and why we need men in America to step up and help fix this problem. So let's start there because I think it's actually the crux of the issue. In my lifetime, I've watched repeatedly as men stood by expecting women to fix problems that they don't create and don't actually do. So like just for an example, the underpayment of women by almost 20% for the same job is something that in 2026 should have been fixed. But the reason why it's not fixed is that corporate greedy barons, robber barons that have destroyed this country in so many ways, well, all they care about is profits. And men have been trained to worship and kneel in front of uh people who are worth a lot of money and big corporations. And in many ways, because of their lack of emotional maturity over the decades, they just stand by expecting, you know, because women do all the fixing around the house and you know, fixing situations and dealing with uh um all the minutiae and they just feel like they're supposed to go to work and come home. But no, women cannot fix problems like the underpayment of women in this country or the greed of corporate barons because we're not in the power positions that actually can solve this. Now, we as people can come together and begin to make our voices be heard uh and start to demand change. Um, but I don't think it's going to become from electing people. It's gonna become from us being so loud and so noisy and so in the faces of the system that they have no choice. Um, if we want to see an increase in the birth rate and uh um and in the marriage rate, men need to not only emotionally mature, but they need to realize that some of the most serious problems affecting women and children are their fault and cannot be fixed by women. So you've got to get off your asses and stop standing on the sidelines expecting it to fix itself. So, men, let's rally, let's get some emotional intelligence and let's become aware of these problems and how women can't fix them and why they keep getting apparently worse. Um, so let's start with that. Um, uh examples of how women and children are second-class citizens in America. And I should really say third-class citizens, because first class citizens um are the rich folks, the handful of people that run everything, you know, like the people on the Epstein list. Um and uh um second-class citizens or men, just regular men who aren't billionaires or trillionaires or whatever the hell it is, and third-class citizens are um uh are women and children. Uh, and and there's plenty of evidence out there to speak to it. So I'll share a couple of uh stories and examples from my own experiences. Um, I grew up dealing with a human trafficking ring, and in those days that's not what they called it, but that's what it was. And uh I was fortunate to run, but my sister did not survive it. She eventually died from her exposure to the human trafficking ring. And um, and so when the Epstein files came out, I was um, I mean, some of the stories definitely shocked me, but overall I was not shocked. But what what we should be talking about, and what men should really be looking at to understand how screwed up this is, is that all of those women for 20 years, close to 20 years, um, all of those women came out with stories and interviews. And yet, time and time again, it was just ignored. It was just ignored. He was allowed to keep abusing people. We know from those files that the judicial department and most likely Massad uh were fully aware of what was happening and were just fine with it. Clearly, they were just fine with it because all they needed to send was uh one person in to take him out, and it would have been fine. I don't think anybody would have been fighting to find out what happened to him. We could have killed, we could have taken him out a long time ago. We've known, I knew 25 years ago to stay away from him. So it's for certain that people in our Justice Department and probably our intelligence agencies were fully aware of what he was doing, but they did nothing about it. If that does not speak to women and children being second-class citizens, I don't know what will. So, guys, I hope you weren't super shocked because you heard about it for 20 years from all the women who were victims, but it took files from the same department who's had them forever to convince most people that these things were actually happening. Uh, and so I mean, it is time for all of us to be prioritized over this handful of people who run everything. I mean, that when you look at that Epstein list, it's literally a checklist of the people who run everything. You know, you used to see that in movies and think, well, that's not really happening. I think there was a Mission Impossible movie years ago where they talked about sort of the cabal of people, mostly men who run everything. And it was like everyone was like, oh, that's not really possible. Well, it was. It was happening, and it's still happening. Um, here in America, uh the statistics on what happens when a woman is harmed. So 92% of crime in this country is committed by men. The same, it's about the same statistic, uh I think it's 98% of all grapes are committed, so I'm trying to be careful with censors, are committed by uh men. And yet men seem to think that it's women's responsibility to stop themselves from being raped. I mean, for years I heard, what were you wearing? You know, oh, your hair and makeup, oh you, you know, you had your boobs pushed up, tight pants on. That is literally men saying to women that you're you're responsible for controlling the rape of women in this country or children. And uh and we can't fix that problem. And women have had it. I mean, when you spend years of your life watching these things keep happening and and knowing that um the of all of the complaints that are actually brought forward, I think it's only 8% of them. And don't quote me on that, but I believe it's about 8% of all the complaints that are brought forward or actually even taken to court. Only 2% of them ever go to prison. When you look at the amount of prison time these guys spend in, it's no wonder that they get out and do it again. So we've created a system that actually just catches and releases and catches and releases people that have already proven that they treat women like garbage. And women cannot fix this problem by dressing more because if you look at the clothing that women have been wearing, uh there's a there was a a museum type display showing what women were wearing. And the whole point was to educate people that uh it doesn't matter what she's wearing. That's not the that's not even the point. It's like, oh, there's somebody that I can assault because it's a female. Um, so men, we need to prioritize women and children in this country, and we cannot do it if you keep kneeling to the lords of the world um because men are trained into this hierarchy to admire uh and forgive men in positions of power like professional athletes and things like that, or the the rich guys, like you know, the tech bros. Um, they're trained into that. And it's time for guys to sort of break out of that and be like, you know what, there's more of us than there are them. And it's our responsibility to deal with this issue. So men step up. Uh, there was a story in another example, there was a story in uh in the paper today that just made me speechless uh of a woman who had contacted uh the police department to tell to ask for help. This is what she did. She called them to ask for help because uh she was um deeply concerned uh and warning them that her uh ex-boyfriend was going to come over to her house and shoot her, which is you know what I guess he had told her. And the sheriff, uh the head policeman that was there, instead of sending her help, he called and warned the guy who then went to her house and shot her 10 times. Now she survived and she's suing the absolute shit out of them, and I hope she wins every single cent. But this is the kind of behavior, excuse me, this is the kind of behavior that has caused the a decline in the birth rate because women have become uh independent enough where they don't have to to buy into a system that has so much abuse towards women. Uh, I think it's every uh one in every three women has been sexually assaulted. I mean, men, are you are you okay with that? I mean, do you think it's because of what she was wearing, or is it because you guys keep turning away from a problem that you need to fix? So, boys, step up. Um, next on my list is just some thoughts on children. Uh I wrote a book called A New American Dream. And the whole point of the book was that I was I was trying to say, like, guys, we've got a lot of problems, and we could actually fix them and put ourselves back on the international map, but we are not going to be able to do that unless we wake the F up. Because I was watching a lot of delusion go on, people completely aware the number of times I've been called a conspiracy theorist and everything that I have talked about. I mean, you can go back to podcasts that I did years ago. Uh, four years ago, I did one on the death of the American dream and how it was directly related to corporate greed and corrupt politicians. And I shared statistic after statistic of the cost of housing and why younger generations were despondent and why it was affecting the mental health crisis. And um uh corporations have raped this country. They have sold out our industries, they have sold out our craftsmanship, they have opened us up to garbage from China, just absolute crap. I mean, I'm my mother would be shocked at the just crappy condition. I mean, it's been increasing. China's been laughing all the way to the bank at us for 20 years because they started out by like just replacing our products and say, like a Walmart. Um, and then they started selling to us directly through their shitty retailers online and things like Amazon. And then the the product quality got worse and worse and worse because they're like, oh, they got to replace it now every six months. And uh, we just took it. Nobody was doing anything about it because uh the people that were in power were actually making money. And that corporate greed has uh has crossed the entire American experience. Rents are double what they were, houses are uh completely unaffordable for entire generations now. Um, uh child care uh for a daycare center is several thousand dollars uh for two kids. Um, health care for the average small family is now$2,000 a month. Who can afford that? People are canceling their health care now because they can't afford it. They can't afford it, period. It's not like, oh, we want to choose luxuries over having healthcare. No, they literally cannot afford healthcare in America anymore. The price of pharmacies, I mean, it's absurd that pharmaceuticals in this country are allowed to be like 50 to 100 times more expensive than they were in other countries simply because our greedy, bought-off, loser-ass motherfucking politicians have fucked this country over for years. And I'm so sorry if you're offended by cussing. But if you are not disgusted by what our politicians have done to this country by looking the other way, by not doing anything about it, then I mean, I are you are do you not care? Uh um, it's just the truth. We were sold out by our politicians who are on the payroll of corporate America. You can date that back to when um I think it was Obama who made that change that allowed corporations to donate to politicians, which should have never happened. And it's just been a downhill shit show all the whole way. When Obamacare was implemented, I told every single person that would listen to me that we were going to destroy the American healthcare system and that healthcare people were going to actually just destroy us financially. And that's exactly what they've done. And the people that are getting most impacted that by that, that all of those changes, you know, the prices of healthcare and all of the all of them, prices of food, which have gone up, um, our our families and our women and children. Women do not want to have children in a world where they can't afford health care, daycare, they can't afford to be stay-at-home moms because the the job situation is out of control and the pay has not gone up uh exponentially since the 1970s, but CEO pay has gone up 360 to 600% since the 1970s. So, you know, we got to prioritize women and children, or you're or we're going to continue to see a birth rate decline. And then um, the last thing I really want to talk about in terms of of children, uh, and this is just one example of which speaks to, if this example does not speak so perfectly, I should say, to how children are mistreated in America, I do not know what does. Many of you know, if you've read any of my books, that I grew up in an orphanage in the foster care system. Uh, and my sister eventually died from human trafficking related issues, and I spent years on the run from human trafficking related issues. Um the uh in the state of Tennessee where I grew up, the state of Tennessee is trying to pass a bill that would allow the the uh children's services to put foster children in prison without any criminal charges. I just want you to let that sink in because I I know I'm very familiar, excuse me, I'm very familiar with the Department of Children's Services in Tennessee because I had to deal with them repeatedly. They are trying to pass a bill that would allow them to put foster children in prison. P-R-I-S-O-N. It's not juvenile detention. When people call it that, guys, that's marketing. It's a prison. They want to put them in prison without criminal charges because they're difficult to handle. These are the same kids that have been under their care. So they just want to dump them off somewhere because they don't want to deal with the difficult ones that are most likely acting the way that they are if they're acting out because of what they've been put through. I mean, when I read that, I it it infuriated me because I actually, as I've mentioned, I grew up in care. I was not only put in a home as a foster child at the age of, I think I was 13 and a half, uh almost 14, I was put in a home with a man who had had five previous complaints for molestation. They knowingly put me in a home with a man who had five previous complaints on him. These are the same people who want to dump foster children off in a prison. And then uh later on, actually, not it was around the same time, I was actually sent to uh the Memphis uh juvenile detention center, which was a prison. It I'm not sure what people define the difference between juvenile detention center and prison is, but this place had uh concrete uh beds, steel toilets, uh a tiny, tiny little slit at the very top so that there was some some light would come in at steel doors that locked automatically. Uh that that's that sure sounds like a prison to me. They put me in there without criminal charges. And then in the early 80s. And so I've been through that experience. And I wasn't even being, I hadn't even done anything really bad. I had fallen asleep at a friend's house and my mom had uh reported me as missing. You know, I was a bit of a hellraiser back then. I'm not gonna say that I wasn't, but I I was certainly not somebody who should have been in it put in a prison. And so I've been through that experience. And when I read that, I was like infuriated because what you want to do is further traumatize children that you are responsible for fucking helping. How is that even possible in America? If these are not examples of how screwed up this country is, I don't know what is. I love America, I'm very patriotic, and I know that we're trying, there are some politicians who are trying really hard to fix some of our issues. But stop talking about the birth rate and the marriage rate if we're not going to address the way that women and children are systematically abused in this country. Because I don't know what you call developing a system where everybody, all the adults in the household have to work because they can't afford anything otherwise. So the children are being raised by people who don't give a flying fig about them. That is child abuse. Creating a system out of greed because you want everybody who can work, particularly the ones you can underpay, women, there's this illusion that women uh women had demanded to work. You are mistaking a lot of PR photos from the early 70s for what was really going on. There were the corporations wanted low-paid workers, and so they helped perpetuate this whole idea. But the the fact was because women were being mistreated and they needed some of their own independence in terms of being able to take care of themselves because men were really good at disappearing on their families back then. Uh, women were pretty much forced, most women were forced to work. It was a very small percentage of them who were like, rah, rah, I want to have a career, I want to be Gloria Steinem. That is a lie, a historical lie. The truth is, greedy corporations wanted cheap labor and women were cheap, cheap, cheap labor back then, and particularly. And so um, if you want, if if the powers that be really want to do something about the birth rate and the marriage rate, they will they will push for men to develop emotional resilience and intelligence. They will do something about the system, the greed, the absolute shocking greed in this country that has forced people into a position where they're now living at home when they would really like to live on their own or get a house somewhere because they can't afford a home and they can't afford an apartment and they can barely afford food and now they can't afford health care. These are all major issues. And men need to accept that these issues that have caused women to really step back cannot be fixed by women. We can't do it. You know, you you know, I there's a statistics on a statistic on uh Gen Z men um who think a woman should be subordinate to her man, and it's now twice the rate it was in the previous generations. And I think that is due to them blaming women for women stepping back because they're like, What do you want us to do? My life is much calmer just by myself. Um, and I I do I do think that one of the most horrific trends that I have seen happen in this country in recent years is red pill content. These men who do this red pill content, they hate women, probably hate their mommies, because that's usually how that works. They hate women and they are teaching young generations of men to hate and blame women for women protecting themselves because they watch them themselves. I mean, one in every three women's been sexually assaulted. Why are men surprised that women have stepped back? They're just wanting men to evolve emotionally and mentally and um physically and spiritually. And I don't think that's too much to ask. America has got to prioritize women and children in ways that, I mean, if Christy No can spend$250 million to slap her face all over media, like, how does that happen in this country still in 2026? How does a Department of Homeland Security person get to spend a quarter of a million dollars on some garbage like that when people are canceling their health care?

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Work, Cheap Labor Myths, And Gender Roles

SPEAKER_00 22:53

It's offensive, offensive. And we have got to overhaul the foster care system in this country. And you know what? If someone wants me to come and testify before any kind of congressional hearing, I will be happy to do it because I have got stories for days about what it is like to grow up in the foster care system in this country. It's a it's shocking. It is shocking. And just the very fact that Tennessee would actually try to put children in prison that they have introduced to trauma is stunning and a massive statement about where we are with how women and children are treated. So uh thank you for letting me be super passionate today. Please share your thoughts and comments on this conversation because I really I'm very uh passionately drawn to the issue, the issues in America, because I love America. You know, I've always been a big cheerleader for the American dream. I got to live it for a very long time. But um, you know, it's um it's unstable right now. And, you know, when we're in unstable phases is the time to actually make uh massive changes, which I know that Trump's doing a lot, a lot in that regard. But again, you know, here we are at war for another country that gets all of our money and has health care and has homes if they need them. Like the people who live in that country who I will not name because they love going after people. Um, and I'm very supportive of the country. I want to be very clear about that. I've had wonderful friends who are Israeli and Jew, Jewish, and I've done a lot of work with uh with Jewish charities uh in my day. I'm very supportive of supporting uh our allies. But when another country can have benefits that this country cannot have, something is very wrong. And their influence on our politicians is completely unacceptable. It is. Um, it's it's actually ruining things because they're made, they're they're filling their plate and they don't care because we're second-class citizens to a lot of them. You know, there's this segment of the population that actually sees um people who are not um from there as, you know, I forget what the word is a slang word for it. Um it's not, I mean, I by no means am I saying it's everyone. We've got our own people here who are, you know, think horribly about other uh countries. But um that's a problem because when you have that kind of influence, they don't they don't care about the effect that they have on us. Uh anyway, we're you know, here we are spending another fortune on somebody else's war, and we got issues in this country that are really, really serious um that need to be addressed. And, you know, if if war makes us a lot of money, as we, you know, I've heard said, and I've certainly said it myself, you know, there's the uh I forget the industrial complex, the military industrial complex, and I'm a big supporter of the military, but um it is true that if if that's just taking money from this country, why do we keep getting in wars with people who want to be at war all the time? Because that's their way of life. Anyway, thank you so much again for listening. Sorry, I just went off on the end. Um, if you're not already a subscriber to Soltech with Shaman ISIS, please subscribe and do share your comments and likes. Um, the show has really been growing. I'm getting a ton of outreach from people who want to appear on the show. So I look forward to sharing some episodes with you with some fabulous guests soon. Um, let's let's fix it. We can fix America. We really can. But men, we need you to step up. Anyway, you guys have a beautiful one, and I'll be back again with another episode. Bye.