I own an iPod Nano, and it used to be that synching individual podcast episodes worked much like synching music - if the podcast/song had the little box checked, it would get synched to the iPod when I hit the Sync button. If not, then it wouldn’t be synched/would be removed from the iPod, as applicable. I’ve switched laptops around and updated iTunes since then, and it now doesn’t behave like that. I can’t for the life of me figure out what settings I need to pick to make it work that way again.
I don’t want the “X most recent/unplayed” option, I want to be able to pick and choose episodes as they suit me. Checking iTunes’ Help feature didn’t show anything that seemed to be useful, and Googling turned up unanswered questions on the Apple forums or things that weren’t what I’m looking for.