{"podcast":{"title":"The Difficulty","slug":"the-difficulty-1194248","podcast_index_feed_id":1194248,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/leading-human/","website_url":"https://chadprevost.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/7987388/484968f857d3780a5b1b04e704c35b33.jpg","author":"Dr. Chad Prevost","episode_count":275,"summary":"Exploring descent and return through psychology, literature, and lived experience. Essays, poetry, stories for those navigating transformation.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-13T16:17:58.066153+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-difficulty-1194248"},"episode":{"title":"The Kind of Help that's Hard to Ask For, and the Kind of Help You Don't Know You Need","slug":"the-kind-of-help-that-s-hard-to-ask-for-and-the-kind-of-help-you-don-t-know-you-need","published_at":"2026-05-09T10:05:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-difficulty-1194248/the-kind-of-help-that-s-hard-to-ask-for-and-the-kind-of-help-you-don-t-know-you-need","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-difficulty-1194248","url":"https://chadprevost.substack.com/p/the-kind-of-help-thats-hard-to-ask","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/196936141/8fed8be3a3003c445c2b8552e307ca8e.mp3","summary":"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","meta_description":"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…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":944,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-difficulty-1194248/episodes/the-kind-of-help-that-s-hard-to-ask-for-and-the-kind-of-help-you-don-t-know-you-need/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-difficulty-1194248/the-kind-of-help-that-s-hard-to-ask-for-and-the-kind-of-help-you-don-t-know-you-need.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}