The Difficulty is a podcast about creativity, meaning, and the hard choices that shape a life. Each week, writer and publisher Chad Prevost works through the questions underneath the creative process and the examined life—how we make work that matters, sit with life's difficulties instead of rushing past them, and keep going. Expect arguments, reflections, and the occasional witness to something worth seeing. Slower, more contemplative episodes land on Saturdays.It's also the voice of Crossroads Publishing Group, a press built on a single idea: books are occasions for community. If you're a creative, a thinker, a maker, or anyone navigating the difficulty of doing meaningful work—pull up a chair. chadprevost.substack.com
Pitch Analysis
Required Pod Score for this show. PitchCentric checks your profile against host openness, topical fit, and audience signals before you generate a pitch.
Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
36%
Guest openness
Selective
Verified email on file
80/100
Required Score
Sign up to generate a grounded pitch for The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life.
What is The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life?
The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life is a education podcast hosted by Dr. Chad Prevost, with 302 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.
About the host
Dr. Chad Prevost hosts The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life, a education show with 302 episodes published.
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life
Wrestling with the Self
May 30, 202627 minS0
<p>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.</p><p>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 Coun...
The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life
Andrew Najberg + The Working Publisher News Digest
May 28, 202654 minS0
<p>This week, two things in one episode.</p><p>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.</p><p>What I wanted from this conversation was to understand how Andrew actually does the work. Day to day. Hour to hour. We talk about:</p><p>...
The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life
Publishing as a Creative Act and Why Crossroads Opens Today
May 25, 202638 minS0
<p>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.</p><p>The publishing moment we are living through in 2026 looks remarkably like that one. The big houses ha...
The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life
Scott Bedgood — From Sportswriter to Stand-Up: A Writer's Through-Line
May 21, 202641 minS0
<p>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.</p><p>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 care...
The Difficulty: Creativity, Meaning & the Hard Work of a Life
Waking in the Dark Wood: Midlife, Ego, and the Descent
May 16, 202617 minS0
<p>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 adaptat...
Every question we get asked before someone starts their trial.
If you have a concern about deliverability, AI quality, data privacy, or whether this will actually work for your specific situation, it's probably answered below.
What is the difference between Founder Solo and Founder Pro?
Founder Solo gives you 50 AI pitches per month using the credit model (Standard pitches cost 1 credit, Enriched pitches cost 2). Founder Pro raises that to 200 credits per month and adds full Booking Probability access, unlimited Magic Match, Apollo enrichment credits, and data export capabilities. Both plans use the same credit system, so you can stretch your monthly budget further by using Standard-mode drafting.
How do agency tiers work?
Agency tiers have no base fee. You pay per managed client and per talent profile. Agency Standard is $199 per client per month; Agency Pro is $399 per client per month. Both add $39 per talent profile per month. Your own team's user seats are always free.
What is a talent profile?
A talent profile represents one person (founder, executive, or spokesperson) you are booking onto podcasts. It includes their bio, topics, headshots, and outreach history. Team plans include 5 profiles; agency plans are pay-as-you-go.
Can I switch plans later?
Yes, at any time. Upgrades take effect immediately; downgrades apply at the end of the current billing period. Contact support if you need help migrating between plan families.
Do you offer a free trial?
Every paid plan includes a 15-day free trial. Your card is saved at signup but you will not be charged until day 16. Cancel any time from your dashboard.
What happens if I cancel?
You keep access until the end of your current billing period. No charges after that. Your data is retained for 30 days in case you reactivate.
Is the 20% annual discount automatic?
Yes. Select Annual on the pricing toggle and the discounted price is applied automatically at checkout. The annual price shown is the full year cost.
What if I have more than 50 profiles or 20 clients?
That is our Enterprise tier. Contact our sales team and we will build a custom plan with volume pricing, a dedicated account manager, and SLA guarantees.
