iOS Podcast app using 12.6GB for 'Documents & Data' even though storage says 'All episodes' using 999.9MB

I opened the iPhone Storage setting and looked at the details for the Podcast App. Shocked by the amount of space this app has consumed.

App Size is 11.6MB

Documents & Data is 12.6GB

All episodes is 999.9MB

I would like to be able recover this storage space. Have tried completely deleting app and data but this does not fix the issue and the amount of space used by this app keeps increasing over time. Have set the app to automatically delete apps after 'playing', so was expecting storage use to be closer to current episodes downloaded and not over 10x more.

This is a potentially serious concern for those close to the limit of their device storage, and should be looked into.

Advice appreciated from the community.

Using iOS 17.0.3