Hivelogic has a fantastic overview of podcasting hardware based on price point. I suggest you check it out. I disagree with their recommendation for Audacity (for reasons stated in the book about its instability and cumbersome user interface) and think GarageBand is good for more than just the beginner. Beyond that, it’s very useful. Make sure you read the comments afterwards as they are also quite helpful.

Regular posts should resume soon. I finally have a replacement Mac to the one I had been using that died and am putting my studio back together (thankfully my own book has been invaluable for this!)

Thanks for your patience!