I know this is an old post but I was looking for something similar and came across this thread, so figured I would post the solution for future reference.
If you use the get_permalink() function in place of the_permalink() it does not automatically echo the link.
So, in this case…
$podPressContent .= '<a href="';
$podPressContent .= get_permalink();
$podPressContent .= '" title="Entire Post">Entire Post';
would work.
—
Joey