iPhone 14 randomly deleted all downloaded podcasts - Is this reversible?

Hello all.

My iPhone 14 (iOS 17.6.1) seems to have randomly deleted all podcasts I downloaded directly to the device via Apple Podcasts. I've been using the device as if it were an iPod, so we're talking hundreds of episodes of various podcasts.

Initially, I looked at the phone settings and based on the space availability it looked like the files might still be on the phone, just not appearing in my podcast library. However, shortly after that I checked again and suddenly there was a lot more available space, which makes the deletion look fairly final, which is very disappointing, given that even if I was to look to download all those various episodes again, many have long since fallen off public feeds.

I suppose a couple of questions arise for me here:

• Is there any possible way to retrieve those files without going back into Apple Podcasts and re-downloading those still available one by one?
• And on a broader level, can I trust that this was just a random glitch and won't happen again? As things stand, I've kind of lost faith in the device.

On a related point, it's no longer asking me for my passcode when I power the device on or bring the screen "alive". I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case before this morning and hard to believe it's a coincidence. Anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Thanks in advance!