https://www.mollyborn.me/mywork daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1585145390001-XQDOGGDQB2CPYV2LEDW7/IMG_4597.jpeg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1585145390001-XQDOGGDQB2CPYV2LEDW7/IMG_4597.jpeg Work https://www.mollyborn.me/gallery-mojave daily 0.75 2025-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1458581832673-UZTVQK3KYBRBZJEV2TA9/EmptyName-13.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1459879490526-G24JE1DJLLKTXZZ7AB3Q/img-01.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1461695306540-8QFJK5P595E5ROR2LJ52/img-05.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1459879492862-RKJ57EW5U6XYS5SBZ16U/img-08.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1461695316996-9T0PB79UV8MG58D1SSJX/img-06.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1459879491425-LMMLEQ04TVDPA4ZBY5SJ/img-03.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1459879491506-9LEW43M9OMQZEMMON1JW/img-04.jpg Gallery https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1461695299453-AM36QBLDUB7DWF3AIKOH/img-02.jpg Gallery https://www.mollyborn.me/contact daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/work daily 0.75 2024-06-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/a69cc153-efd3-4172-a9f6-88cd0ffae081/farmington.png Work - How A 1968 Disaster In A Coal Mine Changed The Industry My story on how one of the country’s worst mine disasters ushered in critical safety laws was featured in NPR’s 1968: How We Got Here, a special series about key political and cultural events of that year. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1635787942851-QUKQRG0BA0AQL2GCURUT/foster.jpeg Work - Foster care: A system in crisis As an Appalachia Reporting Fellow with GroundTruth, I co-reported this series published by Mountain State Spotlight, a civic newsroom in West Virginia. My reporting partner and I were named finalists for the Livingston Award. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1635787603499-XHFGMAJ0Y4G6F060G4MF/Screen+Shot+2021-11-01+at+1.26.01+PM.png Work - How a mythical backwoods monster saved a struggling West Virginia glass company For The Washington Post, I wrote about how a West Virginia glass company reinvented itself by pairing the enterprising spirit of young creatives with the institutional knowledge of the lifers inside its historic factory. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/a9fd6ad9-7a73-433b-bd4e-922d4873f9e3/CONDENSED-brad-and-church.jpg Work - A Eulogy for King Coal For the online magazine Salvation South, I wrote an essay about the Rev. Brad Davis and a eulogy he delivered for the personification of a dying industry. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1635782577009-XHAXNFKG1RAD9MM7EPW1/flooding.png Work - As floods worsen in Appalachia, disaster prep gets more complex — and necessary For Southerly, I wrote about how climate change is leading to more intense flooding in a vulnerable region. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1616861639691-AH8AGB3JTB3O9VC9RCOQ/MyLoveUSA-11+%281%29.png Work - My Love This six-part international documentary series about long-term companionship and love came out April 2021 on Netflix. I was the associate producer for the U.S. episode, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon. My Love was named Best Episodic Series at 2022 IDA Documentary Awards. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1570219967471-TFZTS6MEV4TA6FAWRVP3/teacherstrike.jpg Work - Covering the West Virginia Teacher Strike — and Coming Home For GroundTruth, I wrote about covering the state’s historic teacher strike. Read the essay and listen to my coverage on NPR. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1570217307639-WBOJEBYICCQUSYI8U4Q8/Screen%252BShot%252B2019-10-04%252Bat%252B2.49.31%252BPM.jpg Work - What Would Krishna Do? This audio documentary I reported and co-produced for the podcast Sacred & Profane explores why a landmark Hare Krishna community in rural West Virginia decided to sell its mineral rights to gas companies. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1635787385339-FSRAI32AFKGBJF5883RU/IMG_5325.jpg Work - After generations of hauling water, a corner of Appalachia still waits for a better future For The Washington Post, I explored the water systems in southern West Virginia, highlighting the efforts some residents must go through to get decent drinking water and the work of those trying to find a solution. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1616779159865-Y277D285L806XFYA7VEH/kt.jpeg Work - She’s a veteran who killed seven other veterans at a West Virginia hospital. Their families want to know why. For The Washington Post, I co-wrote this piece about a woman who pleaded guilty to killing seven veterans at a VA hospital in West Virginia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1570217284250-JA3I5QKA51AUOCCG2QZA/image-asset.jpeg Work - How Drinking Water Systems Are Failing Rural Residents I was a 2019 Livingston Award finalist for this collaboration on water quality issues in central Appalachia with the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail and the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1570221854832-5MS01Y2ZGGJY3S34CWNY/image-asset.jpeg Work - In Some States, Drug Felons Still Face Lifetime Ban On SNAP Benefits For WVPB and NPR, I reported on how West Virginia was among only a handful of states that had a lifetime ban on food stamps for people who commit drug-related felonies. State lawmakers changed the law during the following Legislative session. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1570216850180-58KIXDQL6EYNAA0A74OC/IMG_2516_1_0.jpg Work - A Traveling Needle Exchange in Wyoming County This short-staffed rural health department in southern West Virginia treks from one end of the sprawling county to the other every week, offering clean needles in exchange for used ones, at a tent on the side of the road. Those they serve are dangerously at risk of contracting HIV. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/ba5bc9c7-b37e-43ca-80f5-ada408df25ca/jeeva.png Work - A Church, an Ashram, and a Pipeline This audio documentary I reported and co-produced for the podcast Sacred & Profane tells the story of a successful grassroots effort in rural Virginia to fight the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/1616774217284-Q5673WLGV2LEWJBED7CT/easter.jpeg Work - Social Distance Assistance I was lead producer on this podcast from Virginia Public Media about mutual aid during the earliest days of Covid-19. We explored complex topics, like how our country’s food system works and how the faithful observed religious traditions during lockdown. The New York Times named our show a “Podcast for the Pandemic Era.” (This photo is from a 2020 Easter service at a drive-in movie theatre in Johnstown, Pa.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/98b04155-8c39-46a3-a4fa-c51149520d75/KC.jpeg Work - King Coal I was co-producer on the documentary King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon. It premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and will be available for streaming in June 2024 on POV, television’s longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films. https://www.mollyborn.me/home daily 1.0 2023-02-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/a5e9b9b3-a9fd-44f2-b763-3edf5bf69092/IMG_2001.JPG Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.mollyborn.me/about daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/contact-1 daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/headshots daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/welcome daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/bio daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/contact-2 daily 0.75 2020-03-25 https://www.mollyborn.me/bio-1 daily 0.75 2024-02-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d42e5fe70820f000109c7a1/4ac90541-5186-4022-8bb1-adc60e770c8d/molly-1.jpeg Bio I’m a journalist and producer based in Charleston, West Virginia, working across several forms of media. I tell stories in and about Appalachia, and I love working with audio and moving image archival material. Recently I co-produced King Coal, a forthcoming documentary directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023 to rave reviews. As a reporter, I was twice named a Livingston Award finalist, first for my work covering water access issues in West Virginia’s southern coalfields for the state’s NPR member station in 2018. I was one of the inaugural fellows in the Report for America program that year. I received the commendation again for my role in an 2021 investigation of the state’s foster care system. I produced a podcast during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic that explored complex topics, including disruptions in America's food system and the creative ways people observed religious practices during Covid. It was named a “Podcast for the Pandemic Era” by The New York Times. As a producer I’ve worked on film projects commissioned by Frontline, The Marshall Project, and Netflix. From January 2022 through May 2023 I was the Mellow Fellow in Journalism at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where I taught and advised student journalists covering the community. I’m a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and Fairmont State University. I grew up in West Virginia. Many thanks to my extremely talented friend Rebecca Kiger, who took this photo. https://www.mollyborn.me/impact-quote-mojave daily 0.75 2025-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1459879174445-MIOY5PULB1XAW864NVA8/img-06.jpg Quote https://www.mollyborn.me/impact-intro-mojave daily 0.75 2025-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1462307933447-M3RK3DCCA0RXY4BTQXOZ/img-05.jpg Impact Intro https://www.mollyborn.me/steps-mojave daily 0.75 2025-06-10 https://www.mollyborn.me/your-money-mojave daily 0.75 2025-06-10 https://www.mollyborn.me/impact-join-mojave daily 0.75 2025-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e049e08a65e26059119cd5/1459870151243-UM5MND5R89JE6VXSI8T1/img-07.jpg Join