I bought my daughter a VERY cheap mp3 player for Christmas. Some of the button controls are very anti-intuitive but it mostly works fine. The battery goes and goes.

I got it because she likes listening to music and we wanted her to do that but, obviously, are mindful of screens. We hope that the kids use screens with purpose but if it doesn’t feel like a losing battle.

Anyway, found https://www.podcastdownloader.com which lets me download the mp3 from her favourite podcast so she can listen on her little player.