The Commercial Break - Introducing: Cement City

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Two journalists stumble into a dying town with a Smog Museum and a mayor named Piglet… and not a whole lot else. They have one burning question: What’s it like to live here, in a town left for dead? They buy a house and stay – for three years. They get caught up in an election cycle and a web of scandals. It’s democracy in action on the smallest scale. It’s Our Town for our time. And it’s all real. Cement City is an Audacy original in partnership with Cement City Productions. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey cats and kittens, welcome to a special edition of the Commercial Break. And by the way, best to you. You know I love a good quirky documentary or a quirky podcast, and I think we've got a good one for you to take a listen to. Our network, Odyssey, is putting out an original podcast called Cement City. And today, we're excited to share a preview of that new podcast. Cement City tells the true story of a little, broken downtown at a precipice. Denora, Pennsylvania.

The population is only 4,650. The town has no schools, no banks, no grocery stores, no gas stations, but it does have a smog museum and a mayor named Piglet. I said that correctly. The name is Piglet. The narrator and writer, Jean-Marie and her friend with the microphone, Aaron, arrive in town at a pivotal moment. Denora has hit bottom.

But there is hope. For the first time since the steel mill left 50 years ago, something might be moving into town instead of leaving it. And there's an unlikely cast of flawed heroes and rainy-day optimists who are determined to make it happen and save the town. As mentioned, Cement City is an original Odyssey podcast in partnership with Cement City Productions.

And it's now available on the Odyssey app or wherever you're listening to this podcast. So let's do this. Why don't you relax and I'm going to press play on a sneak peek. Did you know that there is actually a band, a local Pittsburgh band called Denora? They were driving down the highway and they seen the sign for Denora and they said, hmm, that sounds like a really cool name. I love that band. What's that? I love that band. I think I like you. I'm sure, I'm sure I do.

I don't remember the other words to it. A few years ago, I pulled off the highway into a dying town I'd never heard of. It was just one of those exit signs I'd always whizzed past on my way to someplace else. And I was curious. I brought my friend Erin. She brought her microphone. We came here with one burning question. What's it like to live here in a dying town?

See, that's what we really don't need. I'm not buying a house, honey. Well, that's what I'm asking you. And then suddenly, I'm buying a house, honey. Well, that's what I'm asking you. And then suddenly, I'm buying a house. I think I like you. I'm crazy. I'm sure I do. I'm Jean Marie Laskis. Welcome to DeNora, Pennsylvania.

Population 4,650. So what did you just say about it? It's what? It's the home of champions. DeNora's the home of champions. The home of champions. There was a billboard announcing it when we first drove into town.

Talk to some people around here, you'll find out too. But it seemed like there wasn't much else. You know what I mean? Put a gas station in, give us a grocery store. Just one restaurant and a Dollar General and a smog museum. I mean, those are things that people need. You know what I mean?

A bank. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Damn it, we got smog? Everybody else got pumpkins and apples, we got smog. But we stuck around. What the hell we did with smog? What we found was a dying town with one hell of a will to live. D'Nour P.A. will not go down without a fight.

Tick tick tick goes the clock, 19 days and there's an election. Tick tick tick goes the clock. I need to do this and they expect someone like me to do this so I should do this. Theodore Roosevelt, the man in the arena, that's what it is. That's where we're at. That's what you gotta do. You want to do great things for your town and community, you gotta be here from dawn to dusk. I'm ready. We have our hero. Oh my God, he's amazing. He has no idea how good he is. To me this is going to be one of the most important primaries ever.

I mean, it's just mind-boggling. Things look good this time, after everything that's happened with a certain rival. Well, that's sort of also the elephant in the room. I mean, he is indicted. I don't under- you know, great societies crumble from within, and that's all I could think of.

Seems like there's like... It's a corruption. It's absolute corruption. There's honestly no hope for Denora. You gotta come up with a vision guys. What do we want Denora to be? It's jobs. It's traffic. It's taxes. Just come. When they make a decision should it locate in Denora, this would be a boomtown.

I mean, just... Maybe this is just me, but maybe this topic is irrelevant. All in all, Erin and I will spend three years in Denora. He likes me, so there's a lot of void, but... Okay. And by the end, we won't want to leave. I just feel like today has been like a life-changing experience. I know. It was magical.

That parade was magical. We love this town. We want it to grow. We want it to get better. It's home. And we're proud of it. And we just keep hoping. Okay, so who's going to be it?

Drop my cup. Who's going to be it? From Odyssey and Cement City Productions, this is Cement City, the story of one American town. An Odyssey original podcast, available now. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are you people staying in the door? I mean, jeez, who is?

What's so important that you just keep hanging around the door for? What's so important? Well, it's a nice bench to sit on, right?