All you really need for favicons

favicons.txt

This is all you need...

<link rel="icon" href="https://podnews.net/static/favicon.ico" sizes="any">
<link rel="icon" href="https://podnews.net/static/favicon.svg" type="image/svg+xml">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" type="image/png" href="/f/apple-icon.png"/>

The top one will only load if your browser doesn't support SVG icons
The second one will load if it does (most do)
The third is needed for some proprietary Apple nonsense.

Here's the Podnews SVG. Note that you can change the fill color if the user has dark mode on!

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="50 120 250 250">
<style>@media (prefers-color-scheme:dark){path.p{fill:#f13232}}</style>
<g transform="matrix(1 0 0 -1 110 411)">
<path fill="#fff" d="M20 114h80v150H20z"/>
<path fill="#b01212" d="M50 67a10 10 0 1 0 0-19 10 10 0 0 0 0 19m50 144c0-3-2-5-5-5a5 5 0 0 0-5 5v20c0 3 2 5 5 5s5-2 5-5zm-36 72s-59 3-59-62V114h29v19h-6v88a38 38 0 0 0 36 38h2c15 0 27-8 34-20a9 9 0 0 1-14-8v-20a9 9 0 0 1 14-8 38 38 0 0 0-53-15v-55h-6V99a10 10 0 0 1 9-9c5 0 10 4 10 9v6a7 7 0 0 0 6 7 7 7 0 0 0 7-7V88c0-3 1-5 3-7 2-1 4-3 7-3 5 1 9 5 9 10v17a7 7 0 0 0 7 7c2 0 5-2 6-4a7 7 0 0 0 0-3V57c0-2 1-5 3-6 2-2 4-3 7-3a10 10 0 0 1 9 9v161c0 69-60 65-60 65" class="p"/>
</g>
</svg>