What were the first steps?

When the idea occurred to me to record stories for a podcast, my first concern was, what equipment and software will I need?  Will the sound quality be any good if I'm not in a professional studio?  I had narrated audiobooks for Audible.com and AudioGo, so I was familiar with the professional set up, but I didn't know how much of that technology I would need for my homegrown show.  

I started by testing a recording using Garage Band and the internal mic on my MacBook Pro - very low tech! I figured out that Garage Band would actually work just fine for software, but I needed a better microphone for reasonable sound quality. Luckily I was able to borrow The Blue Snowball! It's a USB mic, super easy to use and very cute:

Once I figured out the basics of how to use Garage Band, and found that the mic sounded great in my living room, I was ready to rumble! (Or rather, ready to read ;)