About
Jacob Potash’s writing on religion, culture and technology has appeared in Comment, The Hedgehog Review, Skeptic, Blind Field, Rhizomes, Hobart and elsewhere. He wrote and produced the feature film The Philosophy of Dress and co-wrote and produced the short film Tiger Tiger, which screened at Rooftop Films and New/Next. He studies Classics at Columbia,Write to jop2108 [at] columbia [dot] edu
Films
- The Philosophy of Dress A troubled designer and her magnetic influencer-muse collaborate on a single dress, but their artistic bond unravels into toxic obsession. Wrote and produced. Feature film starring Sydney Lemmon, Romy Reiner, Jake Weary, Clara McGregor, Eric Roberts.
- TIGER TIGER A couple takes an interest in a strange new neighbor, only to find out he's already taken an interest in them. Surreal short film about babies, tigers, rap and Connecticut starring Sydney Lemmon and Jonathan Higginbotham. Co-wrote and produced.
Recent Work
- Meanings of Melancholy A history of depression before the antidepressant (humoral, monastic, mystical, Freudian) and what the chemical settlement displaced.
- What Is Christian Counseling? How American Christians split over the science of the mind: a century-long quarrel between pulpit and clinic, from Freud's pastor friend to the biblical counseling movement.
- rethinking education in the ai age Superintelligence calls into question what schooling is for and makes humanistic answers more relevant.
- On Prompting and Prompts How language models shape curiosity and attention.
- Clive and Worm in Winter Memoir reflecting a year of crisis abroad. Isolation, transgression, unlikely paths to self-discovery.
- An Anatomy of AI Criticism The promise—and revealing glitches—of ‘large language models’, based on a collaborative book-writing experiment with an AI.
- Rap and the American Religion American evangelicalism as key to understanding the persona, contradictions and power of a major female rapper.
Earlier WORK
- Online Ideas: essays Collection of essays, co-authored with Hugo Blondel. On pop culture, politics and theology during the pandemic era.
- Group: an anthology Editor. Anthology of writing and images by seven friends. Originally published in weekly volumes throughout 2020.
- The Pop Reformation How three popstars leveraged streaming releases to assert economic and creative autonomy, echoing the disruptive power of the printing press. Included in American Music (Vol. 35, No. 4) for its value in teaching public musicology.
- The Panthean Temple's Occult Community Reportage on Connecticut's first Wiccan temple and its priestess. Fringe religion, ritual and the search for spiritual community.
- Marilynne Robinson's 'The Givenness of Things' Review of the essay collection. See also this 2012 Letter to the Editor (-:
- Full archive