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On modern manufacturing in the U.S. and the unskilled-skilled labor gap—with 92-year-old Standard Motor Products serving as a case study: 

Across America, many factory floors look radically different than they did 20 years ago: far fewer people, far more high-tech machines, and entirely different demands on the workers who remain. The still-unfolding story of manufacturing’s transformation is, in many respects, that of our economic age. It’s a story with much good news for the nation as a whole. But it’s also one that is decidedly less inclusive than the story of the 20th century, with a less certain role for people like Maddie Parlier, who struggle or are unlucky early in life.

“Making It in America.” — Adam Davidson, The Atlantic

See also: “The White House Looks for Work.” — Peter Baker, New York Times, Jan. 19, 2011

A man, brought to the U.S. as a toddler, is suddenly deported to Mexico. He’s now trying to get back:

The train had covered 10 miles through the high desert when it stopped at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint. An inspector and his canine walked by on the gravel path. Luna stifled his breath and prayed. Then he felt a sharp tug and a dog’s hot breath.

A German shepherd sank its teeth through Luna’s two shirts, locked onto his ribs and dragged him out from under the train. He clutched his side.

“Without a Country: Immigrant Tries to Get Back to the Life He Knew.” — Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times

See also: “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” — Jose Antonio Vargas, New York Times, June 22, 2011

Featured Longreader: Inc. Magazine senior writer Burt Helm. See his story picks from Miami New Times, Forbes, GQ and more on his #longreads page.

[Fiction] An adolescent girl’s discoveries about her beautiful, elusive mother:

“At the time, what I saw struck me as a strange dream, one that I managed to forget for many years. I was so angry with my mother for so long. Now I’m old enough to recognize the disillusion I saw dawning on her face that night. Happiness is elusive. I’ve learned you can become the kind of person you swore you’d never be. Your sense of self can slip out from under you. You can fall so far. She must have known it couldn’t last. Her eyes were closed against the future.”

“The Norwegians.” — Elliott Holt, Guernica magazine

See more #fiction #longreads

Photo: Froskeland/Flickr

Google and YouTube exec Robert Kyncl’s plans for the future of web TV—and the company’s big bet on professional content: 

“Kyncl’s relationships in Hollywood would help in securing premium content; and, more important, he understood entertainment culture. He brought ‘the skill set of being able to bridge Silicon Valley and Hollywood—an information culture and an entertainment culture,’ he told me. The crucial difference is that one culture is founded on abundance and the other on scarcity. He added, ‘Silicon Valley builds its bridges on abundance. Abundant bits of information floating out there, writing great programs to process it, then giving people a lot of useful tools to use it. Entertainment works by withholding content with the purpose of increasing its value. And, when you think about it, those two are just vastly different approaches, but they can be bridged.’”

“Streaming Dreams” — John Seabrook, The New Yorker

See also: “The YouTube Laugh Factory: A Studio System for Viral Video.” — Wired, Jan. 2012

[Not single-page] Chen, a 19-year-old who grew up in New York’s Chinatown, joins the Army. Nine months later, he’s found dead in Afghanistan from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, after facing constant abuse from his superiors:

The Army recently announced that it was charging eight soldiers—an officer and seven enlisted men—in connection with Danny Chen’s death. Five of the eight have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide, and the coming court-martial promises a fuller picture of the harrowing abuse Chen endured. But even the basic details are enough to terrify: What could be worse than being stuck at a remote outpost, in the middle of a combat zone, tormented by your superiors, the very same people who are supposed to be looking out for you? And why did a nice, smart kid from Chinatown, who’d always shied from conflict and confrontation, seek out an environment ruled by the laws of aggression?

“The Life and Death of Pvt. Danny Chen.” — Jennifer Gonnerman, New York Magazine

See also: “Maltreated and Hazed, One Soldier Is Driven to Take His Own Life.” (Megan McCloskey, Stars & Stripes, 2011)

Top 5 #Longreads of the Week: Featuring Nancy Rommelmann, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation Magazine, Carl Zimmer, The New Yorker, plus a guest pick by Deadspin writer Drew Magary.

In 1990, a trash bag with human remains was found in the Vinegar Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. The investigation soon expanded to killings in Albania and Belgium, and focused on the activity of a Yugoslavian former cab driver named Smajo Dzurlic:

“Smajo Dzurlic, who is now 71, shuffled into the room, his wrists and ankles unbound. He wore a brown argyle V-neck sweater, and his head barely came up to the guard’s chest. ‘Do I look dangerous to you?’ he asked, as we sat beside each other at the end of a long, rectangular table. ‘They figured I was some big man, like Son of Sam or something,’ Dzurlic said in rusty English. ‘But they gave me time for no reason. I’m not a murderer. Not a murderer whatsoever.’”

“On the Trail of an Intercontinental Killer.” — Nicholas Schmidle, New York Times Magazine

See more crime #longreads

The making of a comedian and his super PAC: 

In August, during the run-up to the Ames straw poll, some Iowans were baffled to turn on their TVs and see a commercial that featured shots of ruddy-cheeked farm families, an astronaut on the moon and an ear of hot buttered corn. It urged viewers to cast write-in votes for Rick Perry by spelling his name with an ‘a’ — ‘for America.’ A voice-over at the end announced that the commercial had been paid for by an organization called Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, which is the name of Colbert’s super PAC, an entity that, like any other super PAC, is entitled to raise and spend unlimited amounts of soft money in support of candidates as long as it doesn’t ‘coordinate’ with them, whatever that means. Of such super-PAC efforts, Colbert said, ‘This is 100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical.’

“How Many Stephen Colberts Are There?” — Charles McGrath, New York Times Magazine

See also: “The American Press on Suicide Watch.” New York Times, May 9, 2009

Coming Wednesday, Jan. 25!

New York magazine and Longreads present: “Behind the Longreads,” featuring Dan P. Lee, Jessica Pressler, Wesley Yang and New York Editor-in-Chief Adam Moss. 

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