The Difficulty

Dr. Chad Prevost
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The Difficulty is a show about the choices that shape a creative life, and the courage it takes to make them. Hosted by Dr. Chad Prevost, writer, publisher, and ICF-certified coach. Each episode explores a real decision point: craft, courage, failure, reinvention, and the stubborn belief that the work is worth doing. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for full episodes, transcripts, and Notes from the recording cutting-room floor. chadprevost.substack.com

  1. Wrestling with the Self

    -12 ч

    Wrestling with the Self

    When I was seventeen, I drove my parents’ conversion van home from a party with a six-pack in my system and a freshly-dented bumper on a stranger’s parked car. The officer who arrived at our house decided not to charge me with driving under the influence. He told me to go inside and sleep it off. I have thought about that night for thirty-five years. This episode is an essay reading. The material is personal. Three stories from my reckless adolescence in Richmond, Virginia, told plainly. The drinking and driving. The LSD afternoon at a Goochland County rock quarry. The way my parents finally put me in rehab and the way I was outraged when they did. I survived my adolescence on a margin of unearned protection that I did not deserve, and the survival did not feel, then, like the gift it was. The essay turns to the strangest passage in the Hebrew Bible. Genesis 32. Jacob wrestling the man who turns out to be God, holding on through the dislocated hip, refusing to let go without the blessing. The man gives Jacob a new name. Jacob leaves with a permanent limp. The limp is, in the strange grammar of the story, the proof that the blessing was real. The argument the essay makes is the argument the book it comes from rests on. The crisis of being nobody is not solved by the world finally recognizing you. The world is busy. The crisis is solved by the wrestling. The wrestling produces a self that can speak. The wrestling produces the work. The wrestling produces a person who has something to say because they have done the work of finding out what they are. The blessing is real. The limp is yours forever. So is the name. → The Crisis of Being Nobody: forthcoming late 2026 from Crossroads Press → Submit a project: crossroadspublishing.group/inquire → Subscribe to The Descent: chadprevost.substack.com → Book a discovery call: Calendly here Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    27 мин.
  2. Andrew Najberg + The Working Publisher News Digest

    -2 дн.

    Andrew Najberg + The Working Publisher News Digest

    This week, two things in one episode. I sit down with Andrew Najberg, novelist, poet, editor at Symposium Magazine, co-owner and co-editor-in-chief of Aethon Books: Wicked House, college teacher, husband, father, and my Chattanooga neighbor. Andrew has five novels out, including The Mobius Door, Golotok, The Neverborn Thief, and Eat the Light, which dropped last month from Wicked House. He has two poetry collections out, with Paradise Falls forthcoming. What I wanted from this conversation was to understand how Andrew actually does the work. Day to day. Hour to hour. We talk about: * The book Andrew is writing right now, a horror comedy about a cottage and a Bugaboo, with themes about AI and user-generated material running underneath * The day he scrapped 125 to 150 pages of The Mobius Door because the structure wasn’t working * The voice memos he records while driving his kids to school, then refines into prose in his office between teaching and editing * The daily wordcount rhythm that gets him 2,000 words a day while running a press publishing 40 titles a year * His reading recommendations for horror sci-fi * And his clear-eyed read of Amazon’s algorithm, including the 25-review threshold, the two-week launch window, and the 90-day placement decision that determines a book’s three-year life First, the news: The Working Publisher news digest. Five stories from the past week in publishing that share a single shape. Authors organized at a 91.3 percent claims rate in the Bartz settlement against Anthropic. Scott Turow and five major publishers filed a class action against Meta. Audible flipped ACX into a Spotify-style royalty pool. Draft2Digital introduced fees for the first time in the platform’s history. And Independent Bookstore Day quietly celebrated its fourteenth year, with the indie bookstore count continuing its slow recovery. The pattern: the platform middlemen are tightening their grip on writers, and writers are starting to push back. Find Andrew’s books on Amazon. Reviews are how Andrew’s press depends on hitting the 25-review threshold that gets his next book in front of new readers. * Andrew Najberg on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Najberg/e/[author-page] * Symposium Magazine: https://symposiummagazine.com * Crossroads Publishing Group: https://crossroadspublishing.group * The Founding Voice cohort, for the first three writers signing a publishing engagement, is open through August 31, 2026. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    54 мин.
  3. Publishing as a Creative Act and Why Crossroads Opens Today

    -5 дн.

    Publishing as a Creative Act and Why Crossroads Opens Today

    In 1917, Virginia and Leonard Woolf set up Hogarth Press in their dining room with about forty pounds of operating capital. Five years later, Sylvia Beach published Ulysses from a Paris bookshop after every major publisher refused it. A few months after that, Hogarth Press published The Waste Land — another book the corporate houses had passed on. In a span of five years, two small presses founded by writers and bookshop owners redefined what English-language literature could do in the twentieth century. The publishing moment we are living through in 2026 looks remarkably like that one. The big houses have closed their doors to the writer of serious nonfiction without an existing platform. Agents have become the new editorial gatekeepers. The book that takes seven years to write is structurally homeless in the corporate system. This episode argues for what comes next — a return to the editorial tradition that produced the literary canon. Crossroads Publishing Group is a boutique press in that tradition. Two lanes: Leadership (Covey/Lencioni/Collins) and Reflective (Solnit/Whyte/Hollis/Tooze/Klein). Hybrid model, legitimately operated. IBPA-pledged. CLMP member. The Founding Voice cohort opens today. The first three writers signing a publishing engagement — Editorial Framing Brief or above — receive a dedicated Difficulty episode profile, inclusion in the first seasonal catalog, and permanent recognition on the Crossroads website as a Founding Voice. Pricing is not discounted. The recognition is structural. → Engagements: crossroadspublishing.group/engagements → Submit: crossroadspublishing.group/inquire → Discovery call: Book on Calendly Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    38 мин.
  4. Scott Bedgood — From Sportswriter to Stand-Up: A Writer's Through-Line

    21 мая

    Scott Bedgood — From Sportswriter to Stand-Up: A Writer's Through-Line

    Scott Bedgood started his career covering Little League games at the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Texas. Now Scott is a journalist, author, content marketer, and clean-comedy stand-up opening at The Ryman in just a few days. This is the first interview episode of The Difficulty, and Scott is the right writer to launch the format with. His through-line is storyteller, and the way he’s threaded that line — from sports journalism through self-publishing Lessons from Legends (interviews with twelve College Football Hall of Fame coaches including Barry Switzer, Steve Spurrier, and Tom Osborne) into a stand-up comedy career that started as a newsletter project four years ago — is exactly the kind of working-writer path this show exists to surface. 𝗪𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼: · Writing as the through-line beneath every other identity (journalism, content marketing, books, stand-up) · The meaningful work vs. paying the bills continuum, and where Scott actually lands · How self-publishing Lessons from Legends worked because Barry Switzer talks about it on national radio · The push-pull between strategic thinking and pure creative impulse — and what it costs · How stand-up comedy started as a Trial and Error newsletter assignment in October 2021 · Why clean comedy is harder (no shock-laugh escape hatch) and what bombing teaches you · The Zanies New Material Monday vs. Nate Land room story · Balancing the touring schedule with two kids, a wife, two dogs, and Signal Mountain life · What “five years from now if everything goes right” looks like 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁’𝘀 𝘂𝗽𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀: · June 30 — opening for Chris D’Elia, The Ryman, Nashville · July 9 — hosting for Brian Bates, The Comedy Catch, Chattanooga · July 10 — headlining Billy Goat Coffee, Mount Juliet, TN · July 21 — headlining Mic Drop Comedy, Plano, TX 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁:https://scottbedgood.com· Instagram — @scottbedgood 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:00:00 Show Mission Setup02:11 Meet Scott Bedgood04:34 Writer or Storyteller06:16 Meaning vs Money08:11 Content Marketing Deep Dives10:21 Journalism to First Book13:15 Strategy vs Creativity17:04 Midlife Stand-Up Origin20:10 Comedy Snowballing Career22:17 Big Stages Ahead22:49 Tour Dates Rundown24:07 Clean Comedy When Bombing25:44 Zanies Two Room Lesson28:29 Balancing Family And Work32:32 Rapid Fire Round Begins33:12 Alligator Article And Hunting36:35 Road Dog Life And Chattanooga39:09 Five Year Tuesday Vision40:20 Wrap Up And Where To Find Scott 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄: · Crossroads Publishing Grouphttps://crossroadspublishing.group · The Descent (Substack) — · Interested in being a future guest? Email cthomasprevost@gmail.com — guest form coming to the website. The Difficulty is a podcast about the choices that shape a creative life. The difficulty in life is the choice. — Chad Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    41 мин.
  5. Waking in the Dark Wood: Midlife, Ego, and the Descent

    16 мая

    Waking in the Dark Wood: Midlife, Ego, and the Descent

    Using Dante’s opening in the “dark wood,” host Chad Prevost frames midlife as waking up to being lost after sleepwalking through socially prescribed success, and reframes “abandon hope” as an instruction to stop relying on the old self and tools that created the crisis. He describes needing guidance beyond oneself, like Virgil leading Dante downward into the inferno to see the patterns that trap people, which he links to coaching clients’ pervasive belief “I am not enough,” shaped by culture or family systems. Drawing on Epictetus, Adler, Auden, and the Greek concept hamartia, he argues the ego’s protective adaptations become traps, and Dante’s hell illustrates suffering rooted in lies, from unconscious “errors” to willful avoidance; the series explores this descent as a path to a freer, fuller creative life.00:00 Saturday Series Intro00:58 Waking in the Dark Wood03:10 Midlife Lostness04:08 Abandon Hope as Instruction06:02 Virgil and the Descent07:45 The Not Enough Story10:43 Separating Self from History11:49 Hamartia and Ego Armor13:40 Truth Lies and the Circles15:35 Series Purpose and Farewell FREE — THE DIFFICULTY FIELD GUIDE Eight difficulties every working writer faces, and what to ask when each one shows up. → crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf — WHERE TO FIND ME Substack — new essays Wednesdays, the Working Publisher news digest Fridays → chadprevost.substack.com The Difficulty — Monday (the why), Thursday (the how), Saturday (essay readings) — wherever you listen to podcasts → chadprevost.com/the-difficulty Crossroads Publishing Group — publishing services, IF/THEN Books, the Iris Blackwood mystery series → crossroadspublishing.group — “The difficulty in life is the choice.” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    17 мин.
  6. The Free Lunch Is Ending: Three Publishing Stories Worth Your Attention

    14 мая

    The Free Lunch Is Ending: Three Publishing Stories Worth Your Attention

    If you're an indie writer paying attention to what's happening in publishing right now — this week was a tell. Three stories landed inside seven days. Each one pointed at the same answer.Episode 5 of The Difficulty — the first publishing-news episode in the new "How" lane. This week:— Audible's ACX royalty model is being discontinued. Authors must enroll in the new pooled, consumption-based model by year-end. Brandon Sanderson called this out back in 2024; Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur is openly skeptical. Same playbook Spotify ran for music and KU ran for ebooks. Now it's audiobooks.— Publishing.com hit with a $1.5M FTC settlement — alleged misleading income claims and undisclosed incentivized testimonials. The publishing industry is being told publicly that some of the loudest "publish-your-book-and-get-rich" programs were misleading. Personal aside: I came close to laying out $6K to one of these a few years back. I'm glad I didn't.— Inkers Con runs May 30 – June 12 ($250, fully online). Working authors learning from each other in real time. Worth knowing about even if you don't go.The throughline: in a week where platforms got less predictable AND shady programs got FTC'd, the answer was the same answer indie writers have been circling for a decade. Direct audience. Real community. Owned email list. Less platform dependency.I share what I'm doing about it in real time — including how the Goodreads giveaway for Iris Blackwood pulled nearly 3,000 entrants, and the moment I almost didn't release Iris #1 as an ebook (and what changed my mind).—GO DEEPERFriday's Working Publisher Substack post extends this episode with sources and analysis:→ chadprevost.substack.com — search "The Free Lunch Is Ending"—CHAPTERSThree stories, same answerAudible's royalty pivotPublishing.com's FTC settlementThe $6K I almost spentInkers Con (May 30 – June 12)The throughline — direct audienceIris Blackwood anecdote — the ebook decisionClosing—FREE — THE DIFFICULTY FIELD GUIDEEight difficulties every working writer faces, and what to ask when each one shows up.→ crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf—WHERE TO FIND MESubstack — The Working Publisher (Fridays) + new essays Wednesdays + weekend essay readings Saturdays→ chadprevost.substack.comThe Difficulty — Monday (the why), Thursday (the how), Saturday (essay readings) — wherever you listen to podcasts→ chadprevost.com/the-difficultyCrossroads Publishing Group — publishing services, IF/THEN Books, Iris Blackwood mystery series→ crossroadspublishing.groupInkers Con:→ inkerscon.com/2026-digital-conference—The difficulty in life is the choice. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    14 мин.
  7. Resentment, Avoidance, and the Work That Matters

    11 мая

    Resentment, Avoidance, and the Work That Matters

    If you finish a paying assignment and feel, instead of relief, a kind of dull resentment — this episode is for you. Or if you sit down to the work that's been pulling at you for years, and the dishes suddenly need doing, the bills suddenly need paying — this is for you, too.Episode 4 of The Difficulty starts the Field Guide series with the foundational difficulty: the work that pays and the work that matters. They're not usually the same work, and most of us pretend they are.In this one I get into the years I spent writing trade journalism in freight and logistics — the compromises that taught me a lot but weren't the calling — and the friends who got the holy-grail book deal and discovered that "making it" was the start of a different grind, not the end of one. Plus Mark Fitten's $10K-publicist-and-NYT-ad story. The Norman origins of the word "courage." And why being 53 doesn't mean you've missed your window. At least I hope not.The challenge at the end: this week, make one move that matters. Even 90 minutes. Notice the resistance. Notice the breaking through.—CHAPTERS00:00 Resentment and Avoidance00:46 Show Format and Big Question02:45 Work That Pays vs Matters04:11 Compromises and Day Jobs06:03 What Is Your True Calling08:37 Renew Commitment and Habits12:10 The Hidden Work After Creating17:31 Choose Courage Over Ambivalence22:54 Time Is Longer Than You Think26:05 Your Work Matters Closing—FREE — THE DIFFICULTY FIELD GUIDEEight difficulties every working writer faces, and what to ask when each one shows up.→ crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf—WHERE TO FIND MESubstack — new essays Wednesdays, the Working Publisher news digest Fridays, weekend essay readings Saturdays→ chadprevost.substack.comThe Difficulty — Monday (the why), Thursday (the how), Saturday (essay readings) — wherever you listen to podcasts→ chadprevost.com/the-difficultyCrossroads Publishing Group — publishing services, IF/THEN Books, the Iris Blackwood mystery series→ crossroadspublishing.group—Thursday: three things that happened in publishing this week and what they mean if you're building toward a direct audience.The difficulty in life is the choice. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    28 мин.
  8. The Kind of Help that's Hard to Ask For, and the Kind of Help You Don't Know You Need

    9 мая

    The Kind of Help that's Hard to Ask For, and the Kind of Help You Don't Know You Need

    I almost drowned on the Ocoee River. The thing that saved me wasn’t anything I’d thought to ask for. This is the first essay in the Saturday series at The Difficulty — longer pieces from a series I’ve been writing on Substack called The Descent, about the choices that shape a creative life. Saturday is for the essays that don’t fit the news-cycle pace of the rest of the week. Today’s is about how hard it is to ask for help — and the deeper, harder thing underneath it: the surrender we resist for years before we know we’re resisting it. Drawing on David Whyte, David Hawkins, and Carl Jung’s “shoes too small” image, with a near-drowning story I haven’t told publicly before. Closing question: What am I holding onto that I already know isn’t working? — CHAPTERS 00:00 Saturday Series Intro 01:01 The Hard Word — Help 03:26 The Near-Drowning Lesson 04:52 Two Kinds of Help 06:52 Surrender vs Giving Up 07:57 Shoes Too Small 09:40 Letting Go Changes You 10:46 Readiness and Courage 12:55 Modern Ways to Give Up 14:47 The Question to Ask 15:07 Closing and Where to Find More — FREE — THE DIFFICULTY FIELD GUIDE Eight difficulties every working writer faces, and what to ask when each one shows up. → crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf — WHERE TO FIND ME Substack — new essays Wednesdays, the Working Publisher news digest Fridays → chadprevost.substack.com The Difficulty — Monday (the why), Thursday (the how), Saturday (essay readings) — wherever you listen to podcasts → chadprevost.com/the-difficulty Crossroads Publishing Group — publishing services, IF/THEN Books, the Iris Blackwood mystery series → crossroadspublishing.group — “The difficulty in life is the choice.” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

    16 мин.
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The Difficulty is a show about the choices that shape a creative life, and the courage it takes to make them. Hosted by Dr. Chad Prevost, writer, publisher, and ICF-certified coach. Each episode explores a real decision point: craft, courage, failure, reinvention, and the stubborn belief that the work is worth doing. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for full episodes, transcripts, and Notes from the recording cutting-room floor. chadprevost.substack.com

Информация

  • Автор
    Dr. Chad Prevost
  • Годы выхода
    2019 - 2026
  • Выпуски
    269
  • Ограничения
    Без ненормативной лексики
  • Авторские права
    © The Descent
  • Сайт подкаста
    The Difficulty

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