A title can look ordinary in a publishing form and still need special handling in XML. The ampersand in a phrase such as Art & Science is one example. Feed generation should preserve the intended text while using valid XML representation.
Keep the plain text as the editorial source
Write the title as readers should see it in the publishing form, unless the tool specifically requests encoded XML. A feed generator is usually responsible for encoding text for the output. Manually encoding every field can lead to double encoding, where listeners see an escape sequence instead of the intended character.
When inspecting raw XML, an ampersand in ordinary text commonly appears as &. That representation belongs to the XML document. It is not a change to the title's meaning.
Check other text containing angle brackets or copied markup as well. Do not paste arbitrary HTML into a field without understanding the tool's supported format.
Review both representations
Inspect the generated feed with a parser or validator, then view the title in a normal reader or preview. These are different checks: valid XML can still contain the wrong visible text, and a browser may display a partly broken document in a forgiving way.
Use one test item to confirm the publishing workflow before applying a broad change. Keep the original plain title and a note of which tool generates the feed.
If a feed error appears after a text edit, compare the changed field first. Avoid rewriting unrelated identifiers or audio links while repairing an encoding problem. A focused comparison makes the fix easier to understand and reduces accidental changes to published episodes.