Welcome to the Festival of Lights, y’all. I’m sure you’re just OVERWHELMED with Hanukkah this year – blue and silver streamers everywhere, Hanukkah songs blaring over the loudspeaker of every mall and grocery store since mid-November, everyone wishing you chag sameach as you go about your day.

Oh, that’s not happening? So strange. Well, if you’re missing on the celebrations, at least your podcast app is here to for you. So grab some latkes and applesauce and your best dreidel for spinning — here are eight recs to get you in the Maccabee spirit.

Get it? Because there are eight nights of Hanukkah? And there are eight recommendations? These jokes, they’re wasted on you.

1. So, You’re Looking for An Insightful Hanukkah Episode
The Kibitz – Episode 1: Light

It’s a cavalcade of Jewish comedians and rabbis and grandmothers! What else could you need? Host David Crane cooks up an entire meal of an episode figure out why Hanukkah has become so important to American Jews. First comes the sandwich comedian Moshe Kasher and his brother Rabbi David Kasher discuss the origins of the religiously unimportant holiday and how Jewish children felt left out on Christmas. Then, the latke course, Crane learns how to make the perfect latke from Chef Micah Wexler of famous LA delicatessens. We get the coleslaw side dish with a listener call from his 95-year-old bubbe about the correct spelling of Hanukkah. And finally, the chocolate soda finale with the Sklar Brothers and the story of their dual Bar Mitzvot in 1980s St. Louis. All this food! For you!

2. Educating Your Non-Jewish Friends
How Stuff Works – How Hanukah Works

If they can explain how the Navajo Code Talkers functioned and how kleptomania works, the original smart guys of podcasting can explain Hanukkah so you don’t have to. You can also hear the optimism in their voice when this episode was recorded back in 2010.

3. Yay Hanukkah!
Wonderful — Ep. 15: Big Dog Don’t Fall Over

If you’re looking for someone else other than yourself to be excited about the Festival of Lights, look to Wonderful, the podcast all about being excited about stuff. In a segment on this episode, Rachel McElroy shares her enthusiasm and happiness for Hanukkah, which is honestly so refreshing to just hear someone get hype about it. It’s goofy, it’s fun, and just refreshing to hear. Also, this podcast owns bones, so listen to the whole episode for fun.

4. Jewish Monsters, You Say?
Throwing Sheyd

Can I interest you in an entire podcast about Jewish folklore and mythology? Throwing Sheyd is all about “better living through Jewish demonology,” because why do the other religions get all the fun devils and demons? Miriam and Alan maintain the excitment and skepticism we expect from shows that look at weird and spooky things (a la Spirits and My Favorite Murder), but for something so specific, you know they know what they’re talking about

5. The Best Hanukkah Special Ever
Saturday Mourning Cartoons – Ep 183: A Rugrats Chanukah

There are only so many Hanukah holiday classics and I’m trying so hard to not include 8 Crazy Nights. So let’s remember the OG, the one, the only, the Rugrats Hanukkah special. We’re waiting on an episode from the Nickelodeon Animation podcast to give us the true details, but this enthusiastic show about cartoons can hold us over.

6. Something to Talk About Around the Holiday
Unorthodox from Tablet Magazine

This is the show to recommend to your Uncle Norm and Aunt Carol when they ask you what a podcast is. Unorthodox is the Jewish show for the 21st century, exploring the wide range of topics that fall under the dominion of the Tribe. Check out the wide range of topics in the most recent episode, when comedian Travon Free is interviewed about anti-Semitic old tweets of his that resurfaced; legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman discusses his latest documentary, Monrovia, Indiana, and the former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame president and CEO Terry Stewart spills his secrets about the Hall of Fame nomination process. See, even a gentile talking about secrets is enough to fit in this show!

7. In The Wake of Tragedy
Can We Talk? – Episode 25: A Visit to Pittsburgh

A lot of the Jewish story is written in the face of persecution. As a rabbi once succinctly put it, all of our holidays come down to “They tried to kill us, they didn’t, let’s eat.” Unfortunately, we cannot leave that back in the time on Hanukkah, or even in the 1940s. Can We Talk?, the podcast from the Jewish Women’s Archive, tries to sit in that feeling when they headed to Pittsburgh for the memorials after the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. It’s a poignant reflection, and one to sit with if you don’t have the energy to think about this anymore.

8.  This Israeli Life
Israel Story – Love Syndrome

If you want your This American Life episodes to feel a little more Ira, check out Israel Story. It packs the emotional punch of the most poignant NPR episode but examines the eclectic lives in Judaism from all over the globe. Start with “Love Syndrome,” the complicated story of building a home for a child with Down syndrome, that stretches from Fairbanks, Alaska to the Israeli city of Safed.

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