ERIN ANDERSON (LEFT) AND JEANNE MARIE LASKAS OF “CEMENT CITY.” | PHOTO BY MARTHA RIAL

On a sunny afternoon in Donora, Jeanne Marie Laskas and Erin Anderson amble down the main street of their old stomping grounds: a downtrodden former steel town where they had a poured-concrete house for three years. Passing one vacant storefront after another, the two podcasters look for signs of hope.

They stop dead outside The Early Bird Diner. Its lights are off, and there’s no one inside. “Is it closed?” exclaims Laskas, gasping, her green eyes widening. The diner, opened in 2019 by former Mayor Jim McDonough, was supposed to be a sign of revival. But she later learns that the diner is indeed closed, at least temporarily. Whether it will reopen or leave town altogether — like McDonald’s, the gas station and other businesses before it — is an open question.

To call the two University of Pittsburgh writing professors intrepid is an understatement. While other reporters parachuted in and out of Mon Valley towns after the first election of Donald Trump, Laskas bought a house in 2017 in Donora and stayed for three years. From this work base, they created their highly acclaimed podcast, “Cement City,” named for the concrete housing created for millworkers. The New York Times named it one of the top podcasts of 2024.

Laskas is an author of eight books, including the New York Times best-selling “Concussion” (which inspired the Pittsburgh-shot movie starring Will Smith). Anderson is an audio producer who won the Sarah Lawrence College International Audio Fiction award for an audio drama.

Together the two wrote the “Cement City” script, which is narrated by Laskas. By turns, the 10-episode documentary podcast is poetic and profound, hopeful and hilarious. They poke fun at themselves, not editing out their most awkward moments — such as a stammering Laskas interviewing a city council candidate about running for office while under indictment for theft.

“We were outsiders, and we were very aware of that the entire time,” Laskas says. “If you stay long enough, you can at least approximate what it might feel like, but you never really know.”

They also stop by the “Cro Club” — the orange-brick American Croatian Citizens Club, which is still very much alive. But there’s a sad postscript here. During Episode One, they interviewed a man named Guido, who told them how Donora residents look out for each other. “We don’t got no bank, no grocery store,” he told them. “We got nothing but each other … I love it. I’ll die here.”

They didn’t realize at the time that his comment would be prophetic. After they left town, Guido passed away.

The two professors run into old friends and recurring podcast characters, such as Mayor Don “Piglet” Pavelko. The mayor and his wife, DeAnne (also known as the Smog Queen), hug Laskas and Anderson outside the Pavelkos’ house.

The Pavelkos embraced the idea of creating a museum to commemorate the 1948 Donora smog disaster that killed 20 people and caused respiratory problems for thousands more. Instead of viewing it as a source of shame, they saw it as a tourist attraction. The Smog Museum is in downtown Donora, with a sign that says, “Clean Air Started Here,” a reference to how the accident led to the federal Clean Air Act of 1970.

Mayor Pavelko, who was also mayor during their three years in Donora and got back in office after they left, says no one knew what to make of the two women initially. “When they first got here, everyone was like, ‘What’s going on here?’

“Then pretty soon it was like, ‘Where they at?,’” he says. No event was complete without the two. They became such a fabric of the community that one resident dressed up for Halloween as Anderson, holding her ever-present microphone.

The mayor loved the podcast. “I thought it was fantastic,” he says.

“I got a text from you saying you were crying,” Laskas says, holding up her phone. “I have receipts.” Pavelko laughs and nods.

DeAnne says the town gathered each week to hear the latest episode drop. “Everyone loved it.”

Anderson accumulated 850 hours of recordings, allowing her to immerse listeners in the atmosphere of Donora. The podcast has also been a boon for the Smog Museum, with more Saturday visitors, according to a museum volunteer who tells them. “He’s mailing T-shirts to random places,” Anderson says.

The one question they always get is when listeners can expect Season 2 of “Cement City.” Life has gotten busy for Laskas and Anderson, but they hope to continue the podcast, unraveling new storylines for adoring listeners in Donora and beyond.

Cristina Rouvalis is a frequent contributor to Pittsburgh Magazine. Her debut middle-grade novel, “Snoopers & Sneakers,” came out in January.