I found the issue. This setting:
Layoute/Design options > log/archive layout options > Exclude Categories In Blog/Archive Pages
Enter categories ids in comma separated eg: 3,5,7,95. For including all categories left blank
I had podcast category 22 in there before the latest update to hide it from my home page (i put them in a widget on the right). since the update, when looking at category 22 specifically, its still hiding them from showing. i need to be able to hide 22 from the home page post list, but not when looking at the category specifically. it worked on the last version of them theme.
(strangely, it also hid them from my dashboard post list.)