Be inspired! USA TODAY's Women of the Year share their stories.

USA Today

04-03-2025

Be inspired! USA TODAY's Women of the Year share their stories. | The Excerpt
On a bonus episode (first released on March 3, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY's Women of the Year recognizes women who are making a significant difference in their communities and across the country. A paralympian, tv host and astronaut are just a few of the honorees who describe in their own words what motivates them most on this bonus episode of the Excerpt. We hope you find their stories as inspiring as we do. To learn more about all of the women honored this year, you can visit womenoftheyear.usatoday.com.
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Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Zulekha Nathoo:
Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Zulekha Nathoo, and this is a bonus episode of The Excerpt.
USA TODAY's Women of the Year recognizes women who are making a significant difference in their communities and across our country. On today's special episode, we're bringing you stories from our 2025 honorees. We hope you find their stories as inspiring as we have. First up, former Today Show host, Hoda Kotb on her choice to make a big change; a pivot away from the anchor desk.
Hoda Kotb:
Because I turned 60, I was like, "Well, what's that decade going to be about?" And I thought to myself, "Let's make it something different."
Zulekha Nathoo:
And with that, Kotb announced she was leaving the Today Show after more than 25 years with NBC.
Hoda Kotb:
Oh, love you.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Kotb has remained open about life's joy and pain, including challenges she faced with fertility after having cancer.
Hoda Kotb:
The idea of having kids came back a million times in my brain before things finally changed.
Zulekha Nathoo:
That change came more than 10 years later. Kotb adopted two girls, Haley and Hope, when she was in her 50s.
Hoda Kotb:
We come with knowledge and emotions and maturity that no 23-year-old has. I lost my dad when my dad was 53. Tomorrow's not guaranteed. If you're saying I'm not going to do it because maybe down the road I'll be an older parent. So what. So what, you're an older parent. Your heart's ability to expand is beyond measure.
Zulekha Nathoo:
And now that her mornings are free to have breakfast as a family and walk her daughters to school, Kotb says she's ready to soak it all in.
Hoda Kotb:
I love you.
We all have a time pie and you slice it up, and I decided that my kids needed more of my time pie. I imagined cuddling up at the end of the day and watching my kids dance around. I just imagine like a regular old Wednesday, just like that. I didn't win the lottery that day. I didn't get an award. I didn't get honored. Nothing great, but it's just like the perfect day.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Our next honoree is US Paralympic track and field athlete, Scout Bassett. Deciding to pursue that international stage was a big risk. She lived out of her car and on friends' couches to make ends meet while training. But in 2016, she made it to the Paralympics in Rio.
Scout Bassett:
In that moment, it wasn't tears of sadness, but of just incredible gratitude of like, "Oh my gosh, we've done it. We've made it, and how unlikely this story has been."
Zulekha Nathoo:
Today, she holds the world record in Women's 400 meter T42 and the American record in Women's 200 meter T42.
Scout Bassett:
One of the interesting things about disability and the narrative that has been told, in particular about women with disabilities, is that women with disabilities are perhaps less attractive or less desirable or not as beautiful because there is a very visible imperfection or a flawed deficiency. And for me, that's something that I'm hoping to continue to change those perceptions and the stories that are told.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Outside of sports, Bassett is dedicated to breaking down barriers that prevent athletes with disabilities from reaching their full potential.
Scout Bassett:
I know that just existing, just by being recognized in this way, that somebody else is going to see it and get a glimmer of hope, or some young girl is going to read it or see these photos and think, "Okay, I have a future. I'm going to be okay."
Zulekha Nathoo:
Our next honoree has a similar motivation to Bassett, to inspire young people to follow her lead. Commercial astronaut, Kellie Gerardi wants to show them, especially young girls, that they belong in STEM fields, like space exploration.
Kellie Gerardi:
My entire career has been underpinned by this mission of wanting to open up access to space for the next generation, and especially for researchers to be able to use space as a laboratory to benefit humanity. I am someone who really personally believes that space is our shared past and our shared future as a species.
Zulekha Nathoo:
She grew up in Jupiter, Florida where she'd watch launches from nearby Cape Canaveral, basically from her own backyard.
Kellie Gerardi:
I felt like I had front row seats to the final frontier growing up, and it felt kind of inevitable that humanity would be moving in that direction. And I remember just wanting to be a part of that in any way.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Gerardi is also an author, fashion innovator, and mother. She documents her successes and challenges online, including the IVF journey she's on right now.
Kellie Gerardi:
I've struggled with secondary infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss for the last seven years since I've had my daughter. And having my daughter was also a struggle seven years ago. I wanted to just share a little transparency around what that actually looks like for so many women, and hopefully bring a little less stigma and a little less isolation to an experience like that.
I have an update. So I got the results today. Only one is genetically normal and compatible with life.
I have a superpower to be willing to fail publicly, over and over and over, because I'm going to keep putting my dreams out there. I'm going to keep reaching for them. I might not get all of them, and I might fail along the way, multiple times, but that's not going to stop me. And I think that is an underappreciated form of resilience for people who have big dreams.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Two-time rugby Olympian, Ilona Maher is another 2025 honoree who uses social media to tell her own authentic story, capturing both her successes and her struggles.
Ilona Maher:
I think a lot of times athletes, especially female athletes, are put in a box. I just think that's wrong. I think women are so much more than the stereotype of the sports we play. What's so special about rugby is that it is a sport that doesn't want you to, in any way, tone down your strength, your speed, your skill. It wants you to be as powerful, as fast, as you can.
Zulekha Nathoo:
She played sports throughout her life, but one stood out the most; rugby.
Ilona Maher:
I decided to try it out my senior year of high school, and I remember how I just understood it from the moment I got on the field. I kind of figured out and knew the spacing. I understood how to tackle, when to do what, and it just kind of fit my body like a glove. And I think I wanted to keep going with it because it felt so right.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Maher was relentless. She made it to her first Olympics in Tokyo, finishing 6th. A severe injury in 2023 could have knocked her out for the season, but she fought her way back to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and earned a bronze medal for Team USA. But it was her candid social media videos that captured the world's attention.
Ilona Maher:
I think it's just so impactful that these girls see me in that way, that they also see that I struggled as well, and they understand that I was also somebody who didn't always just love my body, but I've grown to love my body. And I think, hopefully this gives them the right or maybe the idea that they also can grow into that as well.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Our last honoree in today's bonus episode is United Way CEO, Angela Williams. She says that knowing how to mobilize communities for the greater good is in her DNA.
Angela Williams:
My parents worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. My dad was the head of the NAACP for the state of South Carolina, and he was pastor of a Baptist church. He wrote a letter to all of the clergy in Anderson, South Carolina in 1961, where he said, "Now is the time to be brave and to stand up for your neighbors." That lesson from 1961 stands true today.
Zulekha Nathoo:
She says her faith in justice and in one another is what keeps her going when the road gets tough.
Angela Williams:
I don't care how bad it gets, I always just have this smile on my face, and I'm hopeful. And the way I regenerate is through the quiet times, through my spirituality, by knowing that if we just all hang in there, we're going to be okay. And if you just smile at somebody, they can't help but smile back at you, and then that sparks that connectivity and building a relationship. And hopefully, as I smile and pass on joy, others will feel it and they'll pass it along.
Zulekha Nathoo:
Thanks for listening to this bonus episode featuring just a few of USA TODAY's Women of the Year. To learn more about all the honorees, you can visit womenoftheyear.usatoday.com. I'm Zulekha Nathoo. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.