Cement City captures modern life in a Rust Belt borough known for its tragic past

As I listened to the Cement City podcast, a documentary-style snapshot of modern life in Donora, I couldn’t help but fantasize about talking to the podcast duo about my experiences growing up in the Mon Valley borough. When I met with Cement City creators Jeanne Marie Laskas and Erin Anderson, I broke the ice by showing them the only Donora artifact I could find in my apartment — a poetry book I made as a fourth grader at Donora Elementary Center.

POEMS I KNOW YOU’LL LOVE! immediately captivated them. Laskas, who began looking at it first, implored Anderson to read the poem “I Do Not Understand,” which includes such lines as “I do not understand why my haircuts are so long” and “I do not understand why brains think different.”  

Their reaction points to what makes the recently concluded Cement City podcast so captivating as an earnest look at a year in a town known primarily for its tragic past. 

“We fell in love immediately,” Laskas says of Donora. 

Laskas, the best-selling author behind To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger and Hope and Concussion, and Anderson, an audio storyteller whose projects have aired on Serendipity and UnFictional, met while working for the University of Pittsburgh’s English department. The two co-wrote Cement City — Laskas hosted, and Anderson produced — and Michael Benoist, the deputy editor for The New York Times podcast The Daily, served as editor. The show was released in 10 roughly one-hour-long episodes from September through November as an Audacy Original.

Their first visit to Donora several years ago came out of pure curiosity and a question: what’s the story behind this town so many people pass but never visit? They also wanted to examine a part of the Rust Belt following the first election of Donald Trump. 

They soon learned that Donora, the site of a 1948 smog-related tragedy that killed 20 residents and hospitalized thousands of others, fell into economic despair and had little to offer its fewer than 5,000 residents after the industry that created the environmental catastrophe left. 

To get embedded in the community, Laskas did something bold: she bought a house in Donora to serve as the project headquarters. For three years, Laskas and Anderson spent time reporting in the borough. Laskas asked most of the questions as Anderson typically held the microphone. Afterward, Laskas sold the house, which proved difficult. Anderson almost bought a house there as well.

“It was hard to imagine leaving,” Anderson says. 

The team fits a lot into each episode. Anderson estimates she recorded about 850 hours of audio, and, in the finished product, it’s clear that she meticulously stitched and blended quotes, environmental sound effects, scripted narration from Laskas, and banter between the two of them as they explored the borough. 

The two do not keep themselves and their perspectives at a distance — instead, they emerge as subjects in the series. They didn’t plan to include themselves as much, but Benoist said they had to after listening to some of their conversations incidentally picked up by the microphone. 

“He’s like, ‘This is so good, because this is the real stuff of you being in this place,’” Anderson says. “He didn’t have access to that. For him, that was this amazing window into what it actually was … He’s the one who then said, ‘You two need to be characters in this.’”

The podcast has many more subjects, however. Segments with longtime church organist Arthur Fronzaglio stick with me the most — listening to him play music brought me back to the pew, and his beautiful singing voice gave me chills. 

The two created physical storyboards to map each subject’s role in the podcast’s overarching story. The podcast often features Mayor Don “Piglet” Pavelko and his wife DeAnne, who stuck with Laskas. 

“His commitment to the town was so genuine and profound,” Laskas says. “And then DeAnne, I would always say, if I lived in Donora, I would want to be DeAnne. It’s so opposite from my life. She lives in that house opposite from where she grew up and is just the happiest human being with what she has.”

The description of these characters and the storytelling around them underscores the podcast’s success as a compelling piece of creative nonfiction. When the two meet a woman working at a shop in town, Laskas’ narration describes her as “having this kind of old-time librarian vibe.” She continues: “Her hair is teased up in a bouffant. But what I really notice is her skin. It’s smooth, almost preserved like she spent her whole life indoors behind this counter.” Listeners soon learn this isn’t true: the woman used to be an opera singer who once lived and performed in New York. 

It became clear to Laskas and Anderson that the borough appreciated the podcast. Anderson says one Donora historian texted Anderson to say he listened to the first episode twice. The mayor who left such an impression on them sent them messages they’ll never forget. 

“Donny’s response was almost the same every time,” Laskas says. “‘I’m weeping!’” 

“And he actually left a weepy voicemail,” Anderson adds.

This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2024.