Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Most discussed topics
Brands & references
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 1 chart position in 1 market.
By chart position
- 🇦🇺AU · Philosophy#1345K to 30K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
2.5K to 15K🎙 Weekly cadence·258 episodes·Last published yesterday - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
5K to 30K🇦🇺100% - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
1.5K to 9K
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
—
Total Plays
—
Total Reviews
—
* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
From 10 epsHost
Recent guests
Recent episodes
Hybrid Publishing Is Having a Moment
Jun 4, 2026
29m 34s
On Green-Lighting Yourself
Jun 1, 2026
40m 15s
Wrestling with the Self
May 30, 2026
26m 47s
Andrew Najberg + The Working Publisher News Digest
May 28, 2026
54m 24s
Publishing as a Creative Act and Why Crossroads Opens Today
May 25, 2026
38m 00s
Social Links & Contact
Official channels & resources
Official Website
Login
RSS Feed
Login
| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/4/26 |  Hybrid Publishing Is Having a Moment | Topics covered:A field report from week one of Crossroads Publishing Group—what’s coming in the door, what’s surprising, what’s confirming.What a hybrid press actually is. A working definition: a publisher where the author shares the financial risk via a fee (broadly $5K to $45K, depending on the engagement), in exchange for real editorial work, professional production, distribution under the press’s imprint, and a higher royalty share than traditional contracts.Why the vanity-press confusion exists, and why it’s no longer accurate to the category as it stands in 2026.The IBPA Hybrid Publisher Pledge—the trade-association standard the legitimate hybrid presses meet (and the vanity operations don’t).Three case studies of serious hybrid presses: She Writes Press (founded by Brooke Warner, 2012; 500+ titles; Industry Innovator Award from the Book Industry Study Group in 2017; Warner is chair of the IBPA) Greenleaf Book Group (Austin; operating since 2003; 1,500+ titles; multiple New York Times bestsellers) Lucid Books (Texas Christian hybrid; 5,000 authors in 20 years of operation)Three structural reasons the hybrid category is growing while the Big Five contracts: * The agent and Big Five pipeline is capped (≈1,000 active US agents, 3-5 new clients each per year) * Platform requirements at traditional imprints have become unworkable for serious working writers * The math of a hybrid contract is often better for the author: The traditional advance reality in 2026: $5K-$25K for non-celebrity nonfiction, declining year over year, with the author doing the marketing anyway, on a 10-15% royalty, with the publisher owning the ISBN.Why this matters for The Difficulty‘s actual listeners — coaches, therapists, consultants, pastors, mission-driven leaders, retired executives in second and third acts, working professionals in midlife transition.Five questions to ask any hybrid press before you give them a dollar:One — Are they IBPA pledged? If not, why not? Two — What is the author royalty split, in a specific number, with accounting schedule? Three — What editorial work is actually included in the price — developmental, line, copy, proofreading; at what stage; how many rounds? Four — Where does your book actually go after publication? Real distribution (Ingram, Amazon, Bookshop.org, library channels like Baker & Taylor and OverDrive) or just a SKU on a website? Five — What is the editorial selection rate? A serious hybrid press turns books down.About Crossroads Publishing Group:Crossroads is a hybrid press for practitioner authors—coaches, therapists, consultants, mission-driven leaders, and working professionals with a serious book and a body of insight. Three main category lanes on the site. 80% net royalties to the author. IBPA-pledged criteria built into the model.Inquiry door: crossroadspublishing.groupCall to action:If you’re a practitioner author with a serious book and the hybrid path sounds like it could be yours, visit crossroadspublishing.group to start the conversation. Feedback on the show is welcome — what episodes are speaking to you, what you’d like to hear more or less of. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 29m 34s | ||||||
| 6/1/26 |  On Green-Lighting Yourself | Brooke Warner, the founder of She Writes Press, gave a TED talk in 2017 called “Green-Lighting Yourself” that I have been thinking about for years. The argument: the traditional creative industries, publishing and film and music, have shifted toward green-lighting only artists who are already famous or who have celebrity connections. The writers and filmmakers and musicians who refused to wait for those industries to discover them, who chose to publish or produce their own work without permission, have a name. Warner calls them green-lighters.The line from her talk that I cannot let go: “Legitimacy cannot be bestowed. You have to take it.”This episode is about what that line means in 2026.There is a question every writer who has been carrying a book for a long time eventually has to face. Are you going to keep waiting for someone to greenlight your work, or are you going to greenlight it yourself.In this episode I share three of my own green-lighter moments. Co-founding C&R Press at thirty-two. Launching Crossroads at fifty-two. And the book I am writing right now, The Crisis of Being Nobody, which will publish through Crossroads because no traditional gatekeeper is going to greenlight it on my behalf.I also talk about what green-lighting actually requires, beyond the romanticized version. Four specific things. The work has to be good. The practical labor of getting the book into the world has to be done. The waiting for institutional bestowal has to end. And the writer has to return to what made them want to do the work in the first place.The episode closes with an invitation. What is the work you have been carrying that you have not yet greenlighted. Notice what happens in your body when you sit with that question. Whether something opens or something flinches. The answer the institution is not going to give you is one you have always been able to give yourself.The Founding Voice cohort, for the first three writers signing a publishing engagement with Crossroads, is open through August 31, 2026.* Submit a project: https://crossroadspublishing.group/inquire* Book a discovery call: Calendly link here. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 40m 15s | ||||||
| 5/30/26 |  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 | 26m 47s | ||||||
| 5/28/26 |  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 lifeFirst, 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 | 54m 24s | ||||||
| 5/25/26 |  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 | 38m 00s | ||||||
| 5/21/26 |  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 like𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁’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, TX𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁:https://scottbedgood.com· Instagram — @scottbedgood𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: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 Scott𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀 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 | 41m 13s | ||||||
| 5/16/26 |  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 FarewellFREE — 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→ 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—“The difficulty in life is the choice.” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 16m 45s | ||||||
| 5/14/26 |  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 | 13m 37s | ||||||
| 5/11/26 |  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 | 27m 48s | ||||||
| 5/9/26 |  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?—CHAPTERS00:00 Saturday Series Intro01:01 The Hard Word — Help03:26 The Near-Drowning Lesson04:52 Two Kinds of Help06:52 Surrender vs Giving Up07:57 Shoes Too Small09:40 Letting Go Changes You10:46 Readiness and Courage12:55 Modern Ways to Give Up14:47 The Question to Ask15:07 Closing and Where to Find More—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→ 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—“The difficulty in life is the choice.” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 15m 44s | ||||||
Want analysis for the episodes below?Free for Pro Submit a request, we'll have your selected episodes analyzed within an hour. Free, at no cost to you, for Pro users. | |||||||||
| 5/7/26 |  Get Over Yourself and Learn as You Go | Episode 2 of The Difficulty.The hardest thing about indie publishing isn't writing the book. It's giving up the fantasy that the book will market itself.In this one I get honest about the ego defenses we run as creators when it's time to put work into the marketplace — the survivorship bias of the "no marketing" success stories, the isolation that breeds false certainty, the asymmetric gap between making (which feels like magic) and marketing (which feels like math).Some of what comes up:— Howard Finster on his farm. Emily Dickinson and her response to Thomas Higginson. Fernando Pessoa's 200 heteronyms in a Lisbon trunk.— The German musician who poured everything into one album, got profoundly little response, and stopped.— My own Iris Blackwood cover that got 14 thumbs up and 38 thumbs down on NetGalley — and what to do with that.— "We haven't failed. We just haven't found our audience yet."The challenge at the end: pick one marketing lane, commit to it for 30–60 days, and report back.If the show is doing something for you, the easiest way to support it is to share this episode with one person you think it'd land for. Or restack the post. Or both.Episode mentions:— The Difficulty Field Guide (free PDF — eight difficulties every working writer faces): https://crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf— Iris Blackwood and the Curse of Hemlock Island, just out at IF/THEN Books — extras page (Decision Tree map + reading guide): https://crossroadspublishing.group/if-then-books/hemlock-island/New episodes Mondays (the why) and Thursdays (the how).The difficulty in life is the choice. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 42m 20s | ||||||
| 5/4/26 |  The In-Between Is the Hard Part | The very first episode of The Difficulty. A 50-year-old paperweight on my father’s desk turned out to be a line from a 1900 Irish play, and the seed of this show. What you’re getting on Mondays vs. Thursdays, what’s launching this week at crossroadspublishing.group, the founding-and-selling of C&R Press, the Terminus Magazine “just make it real” lesson, and the $4,000 bestseller campaign I almost said yes to two days ago.00:00 Welcome — we’re not about perfectionism, we’re about idealizing03:00 The motto: the difficulty in life is the choice04:30 Origin of the quote — my father’s rock paperweight, George Moore, 190008:00 What this show is NOT (and is)11:30 The free Difficulty Field Guide12:30 What’s launching this week: the show, the site, IF/THEN Books, Iris #117:00 Crossroads Publishing services — for writers with a body of work20:00 Who I am — PhD, ICF coach, Enneagram, C&R Press 1996-2015, 50+ books24:00 Making it real imperfectly — the Terminus Magazine origin story30:00 Who this show is for33:00 The $4,000 Brody bestseller campaign and $2,000 Cohen Groundbreakers38:00 The in-between is the hard part — the real difficulty isn’t the choice42:00 What’s coming Thursday: how to stop believing your stuff is specialThe Difficulty Field Guide (free PDF — eight difficulties every creative life faces)Iris Blackwood and the Curse of Hemlock Island (launching Tuesday May 5, with freeDecision Tree map and educator’s reading guide)Crossroads Publishing Group — IF/THEN Books, Crossroads Press services, free resources.Subscribe to The Descent (the show’s hub):YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chadprevostwriterPersonal site: https://chadprevost.comMentioned in this episode:- George Moore, The Bending of the Bough (1900) — the source quote- C&R Press (founded 2006, sold 2015)- Terminus Magazine (Atlanta literary magazine origin story)- Game Time Books — earlier interactive-fiction venture- Dave Chesson / Kindlepreneur — Publisher Rocket- Paul G. Brody / Brody Consulting — bestseller campaign service- Bryan Cohen / Best Page Forward — Groundbreakers community- Robert Frost — “the road less traveled” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 43m 43s | ||||||
| 5/2/26 |  Trailer: Welcome to The Difficulty | Here’s the question this show keeps asking:What does it cost to keep choosing the work?This is The Difficulty — a podcast about the choices that shape a creative life, and the courage it takes to make them.I’m Dr. Chad Prevost — writer, publisher, ICF-certified coach. I’ve spent years inside the questions creative people actually wrestle with. Not the productivity-hack version. The real one.New episodes weekly. Full episodes, transcripts, and Notes from the cutting-room floor.Subscribe wherever you listen.The Difficulty. Start anywhere. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 1m 14s | ||||||
| 12/3/25 | Why Knowing Your Partner isn't the Same as Understanding Them (and How the Enneagram Helps)✨ | Enneagramrelationships+3 | — | Big Self School | Chattanooga | Enneagramrelationships+3 | — | 22m 06s | |
| 11/24/25 | The 3 Communication Mistakes Leaders Make That Kill Trust (And How to Fix Them)✨ | communicationtrust building+3 | — | Big Self School | — | communication mistakestrust+5 | — | 27m 15s | |
| 10/8/25 | Building Trust and Integrity: A Leadership Journey with Jim Carlough✨ | leadershiptrust+4 | Jim Karloff | The Six Pillars of Effective Leadership: A Roadmap to Success | — | leadershiptrust+5 | — | 35m 25s | |
| 10/1/25 | Finding Enoughness with David Spinks✨ | resiliencebelonging+4 | David Spinks | CMX | — | community buildingcoaching+5 | — | 34m 00s | |
| 9/24/25 | The Art and Science of Emotionally Intelligent Team Building with Vanessa Druskat✨ | emotional intelligenceteam building+3 | Vanessa Druskat | The Emotionally Intelligent Team | — | team normsemotional intelligence+5 | — | 41m 47s | |
| 9/8/25 | Transforming Stress Into Strategic Clarity with Pankaj Singh✨ | stress managementleadership+3 | Pankaj Singh | Singh Leadership | — | stressleadership+5 | — | 37m 09s | |
| 9/1/25 | Leading with Resilience: A Conversation with Dr. Eva Selhub✨ | resilienceemotional intelligence+4 | Dr. Eva Selhub | Harvard | — | resilienceemotional intelligence+5 | — | 36m 28s | |
| 8/25/25 | Burn the OKRs, Build the Vision End metric theater with Radhika Dutt✨ | goal-settingperformance management+5 | Radhika Dutt | Monetary Authority of SingaporeRadical Product Thinking+1 | MIT | OKRsKPIs+5 | — | 32m 33s | |
| 8/18/25 | After the L: Communication Moves That Build Trust with Jen Mueller✨ | leadership communicationtrust building+4 | Jen Mueller | Talk Sporty to MeSeattle Seahawks+2 | — | communicationleadership+6 | — | 30m 18s | |
| 8/11/25 | EQ Mastery: Integrating Mind, Body, and Spirit with Scott Allender✨ | emotional intelligenceEnneagram+3 | Scott Allender | The Enneagram of Emotional Intelligence | — | emotional intelligenceEnneagram+5 | — | 44m 15s | |
| 8/4/25 |  Emotions as Data: Joshua Freedman's EQ Wisdom for the Modern Leader | In this episode of Leading Human, Chad sits down with EQ-research pioneer Joshua Freedman.Who’s our guest?Joshua Freedman — co-founder & CEO of Six Seconds, the world’s largest emotional-intelligence network.Why listen?Led EQ programs in 50+ countries and helped seed regional teams now serving 7 million+ learners.Author of 5 books and creator of 6 validated EQ assessments that turn “soft skills” into hard data.Partnered with brands like FedEx, U.S. Navy, HSBC, Intel, Amazon, and the UN to produce measurable gains in the people-side of performance.Co-architect of the POP-UP Festival with UNICEF World Children’s Day—free EQ activities for kids worldwide.Origin story highlightsFirst discovered EQ as a teacher/administrator at Nueva School (later profiled by Daniel Goleman).Serial entrepreneur—once a licensed building contractor—and former theater stage manager/tech director.Big ideaEmotions are data, not baggage. When people realize they have agency over that data, freedom, authenticity, and purpose ignite.Expected takeawaysA simple framework to measure and grow EQ.How compassionate wisdom boosts both well-being and bottom-line results.Practical tips for weaving EQ into teams, kids’ programs, and your own daily choices.🎧 Tune in to learn how mastering emotions can transform performance—and why, for Joshua, inspiring “compassionate wisdom” is more than a mission statement; it’s a measurable practice.Check out Joshua Freedman's 6 Seconds organization here.Here's his 2011 classic: The Heart of LeadershipAnd his 2010 on organizational change with EQ: Inside Change: Transforming Your Organization with Emotional IntelligenceWant a communication and wellbeing workshop that actually sticks? Whether you’re building trust or leveling up team accountability, we’ve got you. Book a call to ask questions and learn more about improving how your team communicates here. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 44m 44s | ||||||
| 7/31/25 |  Enneagram Communication Workplace Dynamics Type 8 and Type 9 | In the final episode of the Leading Human series about Enneagram type communication dynamics in the workplace, we explore the interactions between Types 8 and 9. The episode delves into the synergies of these neighboring body types, highlighting how their partnership can merge strength with diplomacy and balance leadership with harmony. It also discusses potential conflicts arising from their differing paces and decision-making styles, offering practical strategies for nines to voice their needs and for eights to practice patience. The episode aims to enhance emotional intelligence, promote psychological safety, and provide actionable insights for effective communication and teamwork.00:00 Introduction and Series Overview03:15 Understanding Type 8 and Type 9 Dynamics03:37 Synergies Between Type 8 and Type 907:03 Potential Conflicts and Resolutions10:35 Effective Communication Strategies16:10 Balanced Leadership and ConclusionWant a communication and wellbeing workshop that actually sticks? Whether you’re building trust or leveling up team accountability, we’ve got you. Book your custom team training via the link here. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe | 18m 13s | ||||||
Showing 25 of 271
Sponsor Intelligence
Sign in to see which brands sponsor this podcast, their ad offers, and promo codes.
Chart Positions
1 placement across 1 market.
Chart Positions
1 placement across 1 market.