Jeanne Marie Laskas

Teacher, veterinarian, policeman, or firefighter — they're not uncommon aspirations for kids figuring out what they want to be when they grow up.But what about a coal miner? An oil ri...

Jeanne Marie Laskas tells stories of coal miners, migrant laborers, ranchers, air traffic controllers, landfill operators, long-distance truckers, and even cheerleaders. Her book Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work is a tour of the often overlooked people who are crucial to keeping the country running.

When we’re in the supermarket, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner, the issues of immigration and migrant laborers usually aren’t on our minds. Yet migrant workers pick much of the produce that ends up on our tables. On today’s Underreported segment, GQ correspondent Jeanne Marie Laskas describes the season she spent with the migrant workers who pick the fruits and vegetables we find in our supermarkets, and why our food system depends on them. Her article "Hecho en América" appears in the October issue of GQ.

At a time when newspapers across the country are struggling, how are magazines doing? We talk to journalists Jeanne Marie Laskas and Vanessa Grigoriadis about what it’s like to write for magazines these days. Both are included in the new anthology Best American Magazine Writing of 2008.