podcasts won't copy to ipod manually

Hi,
So it seems that iTunes won't let me copy podcasts to my ipod touch (2g) manually. When I drag it from the podcast window in itunes, it says "syncing" very quickly but does nothing. If I go to the actual mp3 in Finder and try to add the podcast, it does the same thing. I found out that the only way to add it manually is to load the mp3 in audacity or some other editor, then resave the file as an mp3 somewhere, then add the new mp3 to the podcast, which tricks itunes into thinking that it's a "normal" mp3 and not a podcast mp3. As you can probably tell, this is a little time consuming compared to just dragging and dropping straight onto the ipod.

I know it would be easy to subscribe to the podcast again and redownload the files or just use syncing instead of manual mode, but those methods won't work in my case, as syncing would erase all of the podcasts on the ipod and I can't download the mp3 files again since the podcast doesn't let you download podcasts older than two weeks.

It seems like you should be able to manually add podcasts according to the apple docs but is there some reason it doesn't let me do this simple task?

thanks