MiniMe decided he was done with a smartphone, so we bought him a flip phone with KaiOS on it. It actually has an App Store on it, surprisingly. Kinda reminds me of Nokia phones back in the day, only with better software.
The report from MiniMe: WhatsApp actually works, but the lack of real-time GPS might be a deal breaker for him.
It has Google Maps. It gives you fucking directions. Do you really need any more than that?
Meanwhile, a podcast app is available for it. Which sounds like a nice bonus to me.