I wanted to know what the biggest podcasts in the world actually run on. Not what their gear guides say, not what their sponsors want you to buy - what mic is actually on the desk during recording.
I went through studio photos, YouTube clips of podcast setups, blog posts where hosts have written about their gear, and interviews where they've discussed it. For each podcaster below I'm citing the specific source - if I couldn't verify a claim from a public source, that podcaster didn't make this list. Here's what I found - and what surprised me about the results.
The Verified List: Top Podcasters and Their Microphones
Joe Rogan (The Joe Rogan Experience) Shure SM7B. The most documented podcast setup in the world. Every guest at the JRE studio sits in front of an SM7B, visible on camera in essentially every episode. It's the mic that probably caused half the SM7B sales in the last decade.
Lex Fridman (Lex Fridman Podcast) Shure SM7B. Lex is widely reported as using the SM7B into a Universal Audio Apollo Twin interface with a Cloudlifter CL-1 for gain - this combination appears consistently on gear-tracking sites. Note: this sourcing is from equipment aggregator sites rather than a direct statement from Fridman himself, so treat it as well-corroborated but not formally confirmed.
Marc Maron (WTF with Marc Maron) Shure SM7B. Maron has been remarkably direct about this. In a dispatch on his website he wrote: "I have measured my life through Shure SM7 microphones. You have weighed it with me." The famous garage studio aesthetic looks casual, but the audio gear is serious.
Andrew Huberman (Huberman Lab) Shure SM7dB - the newer version with built-in preamp (documented by What.Equipment). This is an updated variant of the classic SM7B that eliminates the need for a separate Cloudlifter by including a clean internal preamp. His audio quality reflects both the mic and a properly treated recording environment. He pairs it with Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones for monitoring.
Tim Ferriss (The Tim Ferriss Show) Shure SM58 primarily, with the SM7B for some setups. This was the biggest surprise in my research - Tim has written publicly on his blog that he used a Shure SM58 (under $100) with a Zoom H6 recorder for more than 600 episodes, and it all fits in a backpack. His philosophy is "fancy gear is overrated." He owns a Sennheiser MKH 416 but specifically does not use it for the podcast.
Howard Stern (The Howard Stern Show) Personally: Neumann TLM 103 condenser microphone. The studio also has Electrovoice RE20 mics for guests, and co-host Robin Quivers uses a Shure SM7. The TLM 103 is a higher-end studio condenser, less common in podcasting but standard in broadcast and recording studios.
The Patterns That Surprised Me
1. The SM7B is even more dominant than I expected.
Four of the six top podcasters I verified use the Shure SM7B. That's not a coincidence - it's the result of the SM7B being the right tool for broadcast audio for 50 years, plus the network effect where podcasters copy successful podcasters' setups.
2. The cheapest mic on the list is the one Tim Ferriss uses.
Tim Ferriss runs a podcast with hundreds of millions of downloads on a Shure SM58 that costs under $100. He's been explicit on his blog that gear isn't the bottleneck. The ceiling for "good enough" is much lower than the SM7B's $399 price tag suggests.
3. Howard Stern's actual mic isn't the RE20.
This is a common misconception. Most people assume Stern uses the Electrovoice RE20 because his SiriusXM studio is full of them. He doesn't - he personally uses a Neumann TLM 103 condenser. The RE20s in his studio are for guests.
4. The room matters as much as the mic.
The difference between a top podcast's audio and a mediocre podcast's audio isn't usually the microphone. It's the room. Treated recording spaces - acoustic panels, carpet, soft furnishings - remove the echo and reverb that makes home studio recordings sound amateur. The SM7B in a properly treated room sounds like a professional podcast. The SM7B in a hard-surface room sounds like a YouTube video.
5. USB mics are mostly absent at this tier.
Every professional podcast setup I verified uses XLR microphones going into an audio interface or mixer. USB mics aren't bad for beginners - but they're not what top podcasts use.
What This Research Actually Tells You
If you're starting a podcast or upgrading your setup, here's what the data suggests:
Buy the SM7B when you're ready to go serious. Not as your first mic - but as the mic you buy when you commit. It's what the biggest podcasts use for a reason.
Pair it with a proper interface. The SM7B needs gain. A Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (~$200) plus a Cloudlifter CL-1 (~$99) is the standard pairing.
Fix your room first. Before upgrading from a $100 mic to a $400 mic, hang some acoustic panels or record in a carpeted room with lots of soft furnishings. The room upgrade is free or cheap and often more impactful than the mic upgrade.
If you're not ready for the SM7B: the Shure MV7+ (~$299) is the USB/XLR hybrid version. (The original MV7 at ~$230 has been discontinued; MV7+ is the current replacement.) Same form factor, plug-and-play, and sounds noticeably better than budget mics.
The Full Comparison
| Mic | Who Uses It | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shure SM7B | Rogan, Lex Fridman, Maron, Huberman | $399 | The industry standard |
| Electrovoice RE20 | Howard Stern guests, radio stations | $449 | Radio-style broadcast |
| Neumann TLM 103 | Howard Stern (personally) | ~$1,200 | High-end studio condenser |
| Shure SM58 | Tim Ferriss | ~$100 | Plug-and-play vocal mic |
| Shure MV7+ | Growing podcasters | $299 | Best USB/XLR hybrid (MV7 discontinued) |
| Rode PodMic | Budget serious setups | $100 | Best value XLR mic |
The research confirmed what most audio engineers already know: the SM7B is not popular because it's trendy. It's popular because it's been the right tool for broadcast audio for 50 years, and podcasting is just broadcast audio with a lower barrier to entry.
Buy the SM7B, fix your room, and your podcast will sound like the ones people pay to listen to.