Not from Google I wouldn’t. They give hope to people everywhere who realise they don’t know design. Money doesn’t automatically buy competence, so if you can make something useful you can beat a Goliath in a small nice and work up from there.

Google hasn't ever really "gotten" podcast players. Their first attempt (Google Listen) was basically a bad UI around a special Reader folder -- so you could accidentally mark a podcast as read while you were flipping through your RSS feeds.

I haven't had a smartphone in some time, but I highly recommend AntennaPod which is available of F-Droid.

Not only a great podcast app, but it respects your Freedom. It's the only thing I miss about not having a smartphone.

Mark as played is there, but it's hidden in a menu on the details screen of the episode.

And YouTube Music is terrible compared to GPM.

You mean - the option that says "mark as listened"? :)