I got tired of knowing nothing about DNS settings so I asked Mike.
A Record
Maps a human readable host name (ex. www.google.com) to one or many ipaddress (ex. 1.1.1.1)
MX Record
Mail Exchange record points to host that handles incoming mail; because tools like thunderbird search for mx record based on domain.
NS Record
Name servers (min of 2) that are the ultimate authority on where the host name goes. No other name server is allowed to say.
SOA
State of authority record has the name servers for the domain; not 100% sure why this exists and who cares except for the fact that it is requirement.
TXT
Used if you want to do forms verfication for things like email
CNAME
Is a human readable name to another human readable name