The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, January 4, 2013

A Speck in the SeaPaul Tough, The New York Times MagazineJohn Aldridge fell overboard in the middle of the night, 40 miles from shore, and the Coast Guard was looking in the wrong place. How did he survive?

How Netflix Reverse-Engineered Hollywood Alexis C. Madrigal, The AtlanticTo understand how people look for movies, the video service created 76,897 micro-genres. We took the genre descriptions, broke them down to their key words… and built our own new-genre generator.

A Tale of Two Drug Wars Bruce Barcott, Rolling StoneAs Washington and Colorado create rules and regulations for selling legal marijuana, in many other cities across the country pot arrests are near record highs.

“Did Your Father Touch You?” Jennifer Gonnerman, New YorkIn 1997, an 8-year-old Chaneya Kelly reported that she had been raped by her father, Daryl Kelly, sending him to prison for up to 40 years. For the last sixteen years, she’s wanted more than anything to take that testimony back.

Evgeny vs. the InternetMichael Meyer, Columbia Journalism Review

Evgeny Morozov wants to convince us that digital technology can't save the world, and he's willing to burn every bridge from Cambridge to Silicon Valley to do it.

I Smoked Pot With David BrooksGary GreenbergAn imaginary response to New York Times columnist David Brooks’s “stoner friend” mentioned in an anti-pot column this week.

To send suggestions for future editions, email david.sessions@thedailybeast.com. For more great longreads, visit our friends at Longreads.com.