Failure: Synching Podcasts to a new 160 gig Ipod - Windows 8

I cannot express my disappointment enough. I bought a new 160 gig Ipod. I have spent many hours trying every solution. NOTHING WORKS. Perhaps I should just return the unit. What a waste of energy and no thanks to Apple whose solutions all FAILED. I simply cannot afford to spend 30 hours on this when there should have been a simple solution. I have reinstalled the Ipod software a dozen times and have read every possible solution. This is outrageous.

I cannot even find the right choice for this post as there is no IPOD classic category just NANO