Why is the Podcasts on my iPhone SE so slow?

There has been a significant downgrade in the performance of Apple Podcasts on my iPhone SE with iOs 17.5.1

I have subscribed to a number of podcasts. As new podcasts are released, the app used to add them automatically to the queue of podcasts to be played. Now they are no longer automatically added to the queue of upcoming podcasts. 

Occasionally - without provocation - the queue of upcoming podcasts is deleted. 

Often - when I select the podcast app - the app opens showing no knowledge of any podcasts in the queue nor of any podcasts to which I have subscribed. When this happens, it takes a little while (numerous seconds, not minutes) for the app to wake up and remember anything. 

I would not be surprised if I were using almost all of the memory in my iPhone ... but that is not the case. 

There is one additional performance issue not associated with podcasts:  I use the Notes app a lot.  Recently (and frequently), my iPhone responds quite slowly. Sometimes it seems to be locked up for a few seconds. More often it hesitates momentarily before it responds to my finger-strokes. 

Is there anything I can do to improve the performance of my iPhone?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]