diff --git a/src/api/rss-parser.ts b/src/api/rss-parser.ts
index ab846a8..c7fa0dd 100644
--- a/src/api/rss-parser.ts
+++ b/src/api/rss-parser.ts
@@ -74,21 +74,21 @@ const parseEpisodeType = (raw: string): EpisodeType | undefined => {
   return undefined
 }
 
-/** Extract the `<item>` blocks from an RSS document (the sync part of
- *  parsing is bounded to this single regex pass). Exported so the feed store
- *  can parse episodes incrementally without re-deriving item boundaries. */
+/** Extract the `<item>` blocks from an RSS document. Matches items directly
+ *  on the full XML string — scoping to <channel> first is a redundant 5MB
+ *  regex pass that doubles parse cost with no practical benefit (well-formed
+ *  RSS has no items outside <channel>). */
 export const getRSSItems = (xml: string): string[] => {
-  const channel = xml.match(/<channel[\s\S]*?<\/channel>/i)?.[0] ?? xml
-  return channel.match(/<item[\s\S]*?<\/item>/gi) ?? []
+  return xml.match(/<item[\s\S]*?<\/item>/gi) ?? []
 }
 
 /** Channel-level artwork: `<itunes:image href>` (podcasts) or RSS 2.0
- *  `<image><url>`. Exported so the feed store can backfill a feed's
- *  coverUrl on refresh without re-deriving the channel block. */
-export const parseChannelCoverUrl = (channel: string): string | undefined => {
-  const itunesHref = getAttr(channel, "itunes:image", "href")
+ *  `<image><url>`. Works on the full XML — channel-level tags precede
+ *  <item> blocks in RSS, so the first match is the channel image. */
+export const parseChannelCoverUrl = (xml: string): string | undefined => {
+  const itunesHref = getAttr(xml, "itunes:image", "href")
   if (itunesHref) return itunesHref
-  const url = getTagValue(channel, "image").match(/<url>([\s\S]*?)<\/url>/i)?.[1]
+  const url = getTagValue(xml, "image").match(/<url>([\s\S]*?)<\/url>/i)?.[1]
   return url?.trim() || undefined
 }
 
diff --git a/src/pages/Player/ProgressBar.tsx b/src/pages/Player/ProgressBar.tsx
index 407808a..55e8341 100644
--- a/src/pages/Player/ProgressBar.tsx
+++ b/src/pages/Player/ProgressBar.tsx
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ export function ProgressBar() {
 			padding={0}
 			flexDirection="row"
 			gap={0}
+			// The bar's block-char texts are non-selectable below: a drag
+			// over the bar is a seek gesture, not a text selection — otherwise
+			// mouse-up would copy █/░ to the clipboard via the global
+			// selection handler.
 			ref={(el) => {
 				bar = el;
 			}}
@@ -58,9 +62,11 @@ export function ProgressBar() {
 			}}
 		>
 			{playedChars() > 0 && (
-				<text fg={theme.primary}>{"\u2588".repeat(playedChars())}</text>
+				<text fg={theme.primary} selectable={false}>
+					{"\u2588".repeat(playedChars())}
+				</text>
 			)}
-			<text fg={remainingColor}>
+			<text fg={remainingColor} selectable={false}>
 				{"\u2591".repeat(width() - playedChars())}
 			</text>
 		</box>
diff --git a/src/stores/feed.ts b/src/stores/feed.ts
index a5035df..45a1536 100644
--- a/src/stores/feed.ts
+++ b/src/stores/feed.ts
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ const DEFAULT_REFRESH_INTERVAL_MINUTES = 30;
 /** Max episodes parsed per chunk before yielding to the event loop — bounds
  *  the synchronous regex work per frame so one huge feed (or a batch of
  *  feeds) can't stall the renderer. */
-const PARSE_CHUNK_SIZE = 25;
+const PARSE_CHUNK_SIZE = 5;
 
 /** Yield to the event loop (task queue) so the renderer can paint between
  *  parse chunks. MessageChannel instead of setTimeout/setImmediate because
@@ -79,6 +79,9 @@ const parseEpisodesIncremental = async (
 	feedUrl: string,
 ): Promise<Episode[]> => {
 	const items = getRSSItems(xml);
+	// Yield after the item-extraction regex (which scans the full XML
+	// synchronously) so the renderer paints before the first parse chunk.
+	await yieldToUI();
 	const episodes: Episode[] = new Array(items.length);
 	for (let start = 0; start < items.length; start += PARSE_CHUNK_SIZE) {
 		const end = Math.min(start + PARSE_CHUNK_SIZE, items.length);
@@ -340,13 +343,15 @@ function createFeedStore() {
 					"Accept-Encoding": "identity",
 					Accept: "application/rss+xml, application/xml, text/xml, */*",
 				},
-				// Hung feeds must not stall a refresh batch (or the background
-				// refresh loop) indefinitely.
+				// Hung feeds must not stall a refresh batch (or the
+				// background refresh loop) indefinitely.
 				signal: AbortSignal.timeout(FETCH_TIMEOUT_MS),
 			});
 			if (!response.ok) return { episodes: null, coverUrl: undefined };
 			const xml = await response.text();
-			const channel = xml.match(/<channel[\s\S]*?<\/channel>/i)?.[0] ?? xml;
+			// Yield after the network read so the renderer gets a turn
+			// before the sync regex + parse work begins.
+			await yieldToUI();
 			const allEpisodes = sortEpisodesReverseChronological(
 				await parseEpisodesIncremental(xml, feedUrl),
 			);
@@ -359,7 +364,7 @@ function createFeedStore() {
 
 			return {
 				episodes: allEpisodes.slice(0, limit),
-				coverUrl: parseChannelCoverUrl(channel),
+				coverUrl: parseChannelCoverUrl(xml),
 			};
 		} catch {
 			return { episodes: null, coverUrl: undefined };
@@ -786,6 +791,10 @@ function createFeedStore() {
 			}
 			// Cold-refetch parse output is unsorted; sort and cap it so the
 			// cache and the pagination window stay newest-first and bounded.
+			// Yield before the sync sort (the parse already yielded before
+			// this point, but the sort of potentially hundreds of episodes
+			// is its own sync block).
+			await yieldToUI();
 			cached = sortEpisodesReverseChronological(cached);
 			cached = cached.slice(0, MAX_EPISODES_IN_MEMORY);
 			fullEpisodeCache.set(feedId, cached);