Saved Podcasts disappeared

Last night I upgraded iTunes to 11.3 (on a Macbook pro running OSX 10.9.4) and shut down the computer. This morning I started up the computer, opened iTunes and was watching an NBC World News episode. It stopped playing mid program, and when I checked my computer I found that all my podcasts had disappeared--every single last one. ***?

I restarted everything and now the podcasts are back. Is this a new feature that Apple has added to itunes to make me hate them even more? Ever since the introduction of iTunes 11, there has been constant trouble with Podcast playback.

Has this happened to anyone else?