Find a podcast by free-text title, exact slug, iTunes ID, or RSS feed URL. Returns slug, title, episode count, bias, and the top recurring speakers (with entity slugs). Use the slug as the agent-facing handle to feed into other podcast tools (`particle_podcast_find_mentions`, `particle_podcast_list_episodes`, `particle_podcast_get_sponsors`).
Free-text matching is forgiving — typos, missing or extra words, and pasted episode titles all work. Results are ordered best-match-first; text matches carry a `match_quality` field, and an empty list means the catalog has no plausible candidate.
With all identifiers omitted, returns the most recently updated podcasts — useful for browsing the catalog when you don't have a name in mind. Narrow free-text browsing with `topic_slug` (topic concentration, descendants included), `suitability_tier`, or `min_popularity` (global popularity percentile over charting podcasts).
Optional hydrations attach extra data to each result in the same call:
- `include: ["external_links"]`: third-party platform presences (directories, social profiles, video channels, publisher websites) with resolved URLs and audience metrics.
- `include: ["suitability"]`: per-category brand-suitability breakdown (12 categories with prevalence, treatment, derived risk level, reasoning, and evidence excerpts) — premium-grade data, requires a plan with premium endpoints. The high-level `suitability_tier` enum (SAFE / LIMITED / SENSITIVE / UNSAFE) is rendered on every result without opt-in.
- `include: ["ratings_summary"]`: listener-review aggregate (average stars, count, per-platform breakdown).
- `include: ["bias"]`: full political-bias analysis (the high-level bias enum is always rendered without opt-in).
- `include: ["rankings"]`: current chart positions across sources/countries/categories — premium-grade data, requires a plan with premium endpoints. For movers and history use `particle_podcast_get_rankings`.
- `include: ["format"]`: the show's format profile — how often episodes feature guests, detected production formats (interview, panel, call_in, solo_narrated), ad and video presence, episode-length distribution, publishing cadence, and the publish-day pattern.
- `recent_episodes: N`: inline this many of each result's most recent episodes (slug, title, published_at, duration) — skip the follow-up `particle_podcast_list_episodes` call when you only need the most recent tail.