Shuffle 2nd generation stopped playing podcasts

Hello,

My 2nd generation Shuffle recently stopped playing audio podcasts. It will play music, but always skips over podcasts. If I only put on podcasts, it will blink when I try to play them (saying "I have nothing downloaded".)

The podcasts are good: they play on my old Shuffle 1st generation, and play in ITunes. They are legit podcasts - new CBC Radio and OTR shows.

This just happened about 2 months ago. They played perfectly before that.

I've tried using a different computer, updating the Shuffle and restoring it, too. Nothing works. I even downloaded some software from Apple: The Apple iPod Reset Utility. No luck there either.

Help!
Thanks!