USA TODAY’s Women of the Year: Stories That Inspire
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Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Zuleika Nethu, special projects host and producer. This is a bonus episode of The Excerpt.
The Excerpt
Today is Sunday, March 29th, 2026.
What is the significance of USA Today's Women of the Year?
USA Today's Women of the Year recognizes women who are making a significant difference in their communities and across our country. They are powerhouses, rock stars, and total bosses. On today's special episode, we're bringing you inspiration and determination from some of our 2026 honorees. We hope you find their stories as empowering as we do. Let's kick things off with country music sensation, Laini Wilson.
Wilson's calling came early, long before the Spotlight founder. I wrote my first song at nine years old and picked up a guitar at 11. There was this just like burning fire inside of me and this faith that I was given a gift and I was supposed to share it. I didn't know exactly what it was gonna look like. And I didn't know how long it was gonna take me, but I knew that Nashville is where I needed to be. And if that meant I had to live in a camper trailer for three years, then dang it, I was gonna do it.
And she did live in a camper van, trying to make ends meet as a struggling musician. Years of determination slowly turned a dream into a breakthrough, along the way women she admired helped shape the artist she would become.
My mama, my grandmothers, my sister, they are all women who work hard and roll up their sleeves. They don't take no for an answer. And professionally, you know, I've always looked to Dolly Parton. I've always thought the way that she carries herself when she walks into a room, how she tells you like it is with a little bow wrapped on top.
As Wilson's career grew, the Grammy and ACM award-winning artist stepped into an entirely new spotlight. She joined the cast of Yellowstone after several of her songs were featured on the hit TV series. It marked her first major step into acting.
I don't see the point in you running after me if you don't have something different to tell me. Yeah, but you don't understand all this. Then explain it to me. So after Yellowstone, getting to play a musician in the show, my next goal was to play a role where I was not a musician. I wanted to completely step out of my comfort zone and try something that I had never tried. Just like with anything, especially just being creative, it's a certain muscle that you're using. And it's a brand new muscle for me, but I'm starting to use it.
Through every new challenge, Wilson says her story still comes back to where she began, in Louisiana.
I hope people can see that I was just a girl with a big old dream from a tiny town, the village of Baskin, who didn't let anything stand in her way.
Our next honoree is a legend in TV, film, and the streaming business, but she prefers to wield her magic behind the scenes. Channing Dungey might not be a household name, but the shows she's overseen certainly are. Think Bridgerton. All is fair in love and war. And George and Mandy's first marriage. Before we eat, I'd like to thank your father for setting the table.
Oh, it's not a big deal.
Couple of notes. Dungy is the chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Television Group and WBD-US Networks.
How did Laini Wilson overcome challenges in her music career?
Growing up, though, she never saw Hollywood as a destination.
I didn't know anybody was in the business. I didn't even know anybody who knew anybody that was in the business. So that always felt a little bit like a pipe dream.
But Dungy chased it anyway. She started out as a production assistant and worked her way up to positions that would change film and television. At Disney's ABC studio, Dungy became the first Black president of a major U.S. broadcast television network. While there, she helped champion Shonda Rhimes, the executive producer behind mega-successful series like How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal.
Back in the day when I was doing Scandal, it was really just one thing. What was happening in the Nielsen ratings? That was like the main thing. And certainly social buzz was something, but it wasn't everything that we have now that people are looking at.
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