As others have suggest putting the phone in vibrate should prevent this issue.
But I think the correct approach is that the sounds should play overlapped. What the parent comment to yours was talking about was the preferred audio playback is paused so the intruding audio can be played, and then the podcast/audiobook will rewind for a second before restarting play. Just mix the audio from both together instead.
As others have suggest putting the phone in vibrate should prevent this issue.
But I think the correct approach is that the sounds should play overlapped. What the parent comment to yours was talking about was the preferred audio playback is paused so the intruding audio can be played, and then the podcast/audiobook will rewind for a second before restarting play. Just mix the audio from both together instead.