iTunes keeps syncing a bunch of podcasts that I tell it not to. It doesn't change the settings, it just syncs them. I don't know why, but it does. Is there anyway to make it stop?
I think you should be able to mark them as "Not new". For me, only new episodes (episodes I haven't listened to) get synced to my iPT. If you're not on your PC/Mac, you can simply start the podcast on your iP/iPT, then drag your finger over the progress bar (indicating the length of the podcast) and drag it to the end. Then your device will think that you've listened to the entire podcast and mark it as "Not new". Then you can remove it from your iP/iPT. HOWEVER! If you reboot your device after doing that, it may bring the podcasts back. (The removal of the podcast hasn't really been written into the memory of your device.) Only when you've synced your device to iTunes, it will really be removed.