Podcast app is not working.

For some reason, I have not been able to use the Podcast app on my iPhone. For some reason, if I pause a podcast and come back to it, when I try and press play, the app just freezes for a few seconds. Then it unfreezes and I can use it but it will not play my podcast. Restarting the phone seems to fix the issue temporarily. But then it just reverts back. Closing the app completely does not help. This is extremely frustrating. Can anyone offer any insight on why this is happening? Should I just ditch the Apple podcast app and find something else? I love the look and interface of Apple's native app so I don't want to switch but will if I have to.