Kolby, I'll respond here since others might be interested to know some of this stuff. There are basically two kinds of microphones, condenser and dynamic mics. Condenser mics generally require some sort of power to work. These are the more finicky mics as well. Dynamic mics are generally less expressive, though this is really a generalization. People seem to use a broad range of mics for their podcasts. If you're just doing a spoken word podcast you could get away with as little as a $15 or $20 headset mic plugged in to your sound card, or an mp3 recorder such as the iriver ifp799. There are some fine microphones at giant-squid-audio-labs.com Also at soundprofessionals.com The first thing to do is to decide what sort of recordings you plan on doing. Do you just want to record yourself? Will you be recording interviews? Other stuff? One good idea is to listen to a variety of podcasts until you find something you like, then ask questions. Also, how much do you can you spend? Samson makes some nice sounding mics for around $80. They even have a usb mic. Hyle (maybe not the correct spelling) is making very nice sounding mics. Listen to the Leo Laporte TwiT podcast from the podcast expo. Just some thoughts. Rusty ____________________ Skype: rustyperez Yahoo and AIM: reliroo