Restore Podcasts App to Previous State (Mac)

MAY BE MOOT. Please ignore. I just noticed an error was hidden behind all my other windows, saying some files couldn't be copied to the Podcasts directory. Maybe that's why it didn't get restored properly. I'll try again and update as appropriate.

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How I restore my podcasts data to an earlier state?

Longer story:

• I replaced Mac.
• I copied and restored all my folders from a previous Mac. For example, I put replaced the default empty Music folder with my backup copy. Then, when I started the Music app, it appeared with all my playlists, play counts, all that stuff. I did the same with the Podcasts folder. It appeared with all the podcasts.
• A little while later, I noticed some podcasts were disappearing and others were appearing that I didn't request. I then saw the app had "deleted played podcasts" checked by default and "refresh feeds" also checked by default. I had forget to set those to the way I like it when I started the app. I didn't like how the app messed with my carefully curated collection.
• I deleted the Podcasts folder and replaced it with my old version, assuming that would let me go back to where I started.
• However, now when I start the Podcasts app, it shows no podcasts.
• There must be some other place on the Mac that stores information about Podcasts that I need to to clear and start over.

Does anyone know how to reset the app's state to being fresh? Or something else I could try? Note: I don't want to reinstall the OS and start over that way, as that means restoring all my other apps and preferences and whatnot a second time. That was a major time investment.

thanks,

P.S. When I refer to the Podcasts folder, I mean "Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts".