If you're looking to try and make your own podcast with very little money and equipment, trust me - I've got you.
Honestly, the first thing is to keep everything small to start with. Our podcast is hosted on Libsyn, which is our biggest expense (and which really wonderful people have donated to ko-fi to support, which still makes my brain explode). But for the first season of the podcast, I uploaded episodes to iTunes through Soundcloud.
Soundcloud, as I'm currently writing this, allows for up to three hours worth of uploaded content for free. Most importantly, it also provides you with an rss feed, something you need in order to get iTunes to carry your podcast.
Currently, as I said, Academicasaurus is uploaded to Libsyn. I really like Libsyn. They imported my podcast files over from Soundcloud for me with zero issue, and in general support seems really good. I'm on the $5 plan, which works really well for how I need it. There's an upload limit, but it's fine because during the season I only upload every other week.
In terms of actually making the podcast, I use the following: phone voice memo apps, Google Hangouts for group recordings (we listen on headphone and record independently so there's no crossover sound), Gmail and Google Drive for sharing audio files to me, Audacity for fine-tune sound editing, and random programs I find on my computer to actually edit the sound itself.
Recently, I downloaded DaVinci Resolve to use for my video projects, and while I haven't tried editing audio-only with it, I like it as a general editor. It's also free if you sign up. However, the program is HUGE, and my computer is old, so I've switched back to the program that came with my computer, Cyberlink Power Director. It's fine, except of course the newer free version both offers a better editing experience, but also would very much like you to pay for everything, so always make sure to read the fine print on your software! There are a lot of open source options out there. Audacity is strongest, but for whatever reason I don't do fine edits well with it. That's just personal preference, though - you may have to try out a few!
Of course, before you even get to any of the production elements of podcasting (because that's the other thing. While unscripted podcasts are one thing (and I did that for awhile - Bird Barf Podcast was a collaboration between myself and Tina where we reviewed things with basically no theme, thus meaning nobody knew what the heck we were doing, including us), there's making the darn podcasts. Written podcasts are obviously another monster entirely.
If you're someone who needs that extra motivation, I definitely recommend something like NaNoWriMo to force yourself to work through an idea if you find you've been struggling. I like working on bizarre, completely arbitrary deadlines, and NaNo is great for that. Also, I think podcasting in general works that way. You have to create a schedule you then stick to. For me, because I teach, I knew that I would not be able to do all of this during the normal semesters. Thus - the summer break podcast. Figure out what works for you before you dive in.
For equipment, most of us just use our phones. Iphones automatically come with a voice recorder, and so we just set our phones on top of something (like a coffee cup) and record that way. If we're doing a group recording session, we use Google Meet or Zoom. Just make sure you use headphones - it's a pain in the neck to constantly edit out mumbling voices!
Right now, I'm using a Blue Snowball microphone. It was pretty affordable, and I like the quality. But really, cell phones work just fine!
