7.1 Disable featured blog image function

Site URL: https://weareparler.co/podette

I use Squarespace 7.1 to host my podcast via a blog but if I add a featured image to each post then the thumbnail for the podcast changes to that image in podcast player apps, which I do not want it to do.

Unfortunately, not using a featured image means that the blog page has no images included as 7.1 no longer pulls through the first image embedded in the post if no featured image exists (why have they turned off all the useful functionality?!)

Does anyone have a way for me to not use featured images but still have images showing on the blog page (https://weareparler.co/podette) please? I've tried putting together a fake blog page with a summary block to get around it (https://weareparler.co/blog) but it won't show all episodes and it won't fix the issue if people use categories to find relevant blog posts.

I don't want to separate out the podcast hosting into a separate blog because each podcast episode links back from the podcast player app to the page the audio is hosted on, so there'd need to be content in two places instead of one (far too much work!).

I've run out of workaround ideas and am hoping someone can help with some coding to pull through the first image in a blog post instead of a featured image 🤞🏻 or any other idea that could work (other than hosting my podcast somewhere else, not an option right now)

TIA!