Mitch Borden
Mitch was the Permian Basin Reporter at Marfa Public Radio from 2018 to 2025.
He first picked up a microphone as a radio producer in Nome, Alaska. There he did everything from covering the Iditarod to crafting sound rich features about life in rural Alaska. After his time in the north, he was hooked on radio and journalism — leading him to pursue a career in public media.
Mitch has worked across West Texas — reporting on the oil field communities spread out over the Permian Basin for Marfa Public Radio. His work has earned multiple awards, including two National Murrow Awards.
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Earlier this year, Midland County Commissioners created a citizen-led review committee that had the power to remove books from local libraries. This week, county officials revised the policy to make the review committee an advisory council that makes recommendations to Midland County’s library director. -
Last week, Midland officials announced the first case of measles had been found in the city since a measles outbreak in West Texas began in January. Two cases of measles have also been confirmed in the Odessa area. -
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In the booming Permian Basin oil field, a large unincorporated community just outside of the city of Odessa proper has outgrown its existing water infrastructure. Now a grassroots group is trying to figure out how to get more people clean-running water. -
Republican state Rep. Brooks Landgraf has filed a bill that would ban the outdoor storage of hazardous chemicals within 2,000 feet of homes. The proposal is a response to a large chemical fire at an Odessa-area facility last summer. -
The Odessa City Council approved a controversial policy in November that barred transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. But after a new city council took office, the policy was effectively abandoned and never went into effect. -
After a yearlong effort, city officials and local firefighters have settled on a plan to address an approximately $121 million deficit in the first responder’s retirement fund. -
Economist Ray Perryman, who lives in Odessa and closely follows the Texas energy sector, sat down with Marfa Public Radio to discuss President Trump’s executive order declaring a national energy emergency and the large amount of oil already being produced in the Permian Basin. -
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In 1918, more than a dozen boys and men in the small West Texas border community of Porvenir were executed by a group of Texas Rangers, U.S. soldiers and ranchers. More than a century later, their descendants are pushing for all of the victims’ death certificates.