Podcast when paused part way through disappear

My iPhone 13 Pro is currently running iOS v18.3.2. This issue is something relatively new; it's been happening since I updated to iOS 18.

When on my iPhone and listening to Marketplace podcasts, if I don't finish an episode, I'll pause it to finish listening later. However, when I go back to that episode to finish it, it disappears as soon as I tap on it, as though it thinks I've played the whole thing. Very annoying!

Why is this happening?

Is this a bug in iOS 18?

Can it be stopped from happening?