ChatGPT should be plenty good for any foundational questions you have. And asking “how could I improve this code” with a code snippet can give you insight into better ways to do things. If you ask it for broad responses like “write me an app for relaxation sounds”, I can guarantee that it won’t work, but using it alongside a tutorial when you have questions or get an error can save so much time.
AntennaPod is great. It’s open source and has everything you need. The only ads are whatever the podcast has in them, but you can skip forward past them. I also pay for Spotify, but I still use AntennaPod for podcasts.