Erika June Christina Laing is a Pittsburgh-based producer, writer, community maker, musician, and cognitive neuroscientist whose work explores the many ways people make meaning together.
Whether interviewing artists for a podcast, documenting local music scenes, producing immersive educational media, organizing community salons, reviewing restaurants, or studying how the brain processes language, her work begins with the same question: What stories help us better understand one another?
For nearly three decades, Pittsburgh has been both her home and her greatest source of inspiration. She has written about its restaurants, interviewed its musicians, collaborated with filmmakers and interactive media designers, produced podcasts and live events, and spent evenings introducing audiences to remarkable people they might otherwise never have met. She’s always thinking about the perfect place to eat, hear music, discover art, or spend an afternoon exploring the city.
Professionally, Erika has spent more than twenty years in cognitive neuroscience, including ten years developing clinical brain mapping techniques for tumor and epilepsy patients and ongoing research in Carnegie Mellon University’s Machine Learning Department, where she studies how language is represented in the human brain. That scientific background continues to shape her approach to interviewing, research, and storytelling, bringing curiosity, careful listening, and a love of translating complex ideas into accessible narratives.
Outside the laboratory, Erika has founded or produced numerous independent creative projects, including the Petticoat Rule podcast, the monthly PSST! (People’s Song SocieTea) salon, and multiple musical projects including Working Breed and Erika June & The Tunes. She also writes narrative experiences for interactive media, contributes literary journalism, collaborates on documentary films, and continues to explore new ways of connecting people through stories.
No matter the medium, Erika’s work is driven by the belief that great stories strengthen communities, spark curiosity, and help people feel more connected to the places they call home. She still gets excited about discovering a neighborhood she’s never wandered, a tiny restaurant no one has heard of yet, or an artist who deserves a bigger audience.