Needs to:

* Work on iOS/MacOS (and preferably my HomePod)
* Work with CarPlay
* Allow me to batch mark as played/delete episodes…

The native one would be fine except for the last.

So many words I don’t understand!
😂

Sorry, on android. I use Pocket Casts and it’s good if there’s an alternative.

Pocketcasts is available on all platforms and works with Android auto and carplay. I’ve been using it everyday for years. It’s brilliant because it just works

No idea about everything you asked, but castbox has been good for me for a few years.

Pocket Casts here too. Not sure on HomePod (we’re Sonos and it works fine, with its own channel thing like Spotify etc) but yes to everything else.

Overcast.

Downcast for me, tried the others but prefer downcast