Podcasts app on 11.3 is unbearably slow / menu behaves sluggish

Since the 11.3 update (on an Intel iMac, the problem does not occur on my M1 13" MBP), the Podcasts app has become reeeeeeally slow. The app initially opens fine but when I click anywhere in the menu bar I either get a beach ball for 5-10 seconds or nothing happens at all until the menu eventually pops open after what feels like an eternity. I have tried a complete reset of the app but even when I start with a fresh library (not logged in to iCloud) I have the same problem. Even quitting the app via CMD+Q takes ages. Anyone else experiencing this? Has anyone found a solution?