From Snowdrifts to Treadmills: TV SHOW Recommendations appreciated

Winter in Montana is like nature's way of telling you to sit down, sip something warm, and ponder all the life decisions that got you to a place where you're voluntarily freezing your butt off. I think it is the time of year when we are all supposed to take endless rest days, go skiing, or simply hibernate.

The trails are buried under feet of snow, so my running routine devolves into trudging along the same local footpaths and hills. I have countless garments hanging by the fire with care, just waiting to dry out and be used on yet another icy run. My shower is broken, and I don’t own a washer/dryer, so I probably smell awful all the time, too. But it’s my prime time to rack up those elusive Strava Local Legend badges because all I do other than work is run the same routes.

But alas, even the great outdoors can lose its charm when it’s buried in snow. Enter the treadmill—aka the Dreadmill. Does the treadmill suck? Yes. Absolutely. The scenery is nonexistent unless you count staring at the gym wall, and the "people watching" options are limited to gym bros flexing and ‘Resolution Followers’ misusing every piece of gym equipment.

However, I recently stumbled onto a life hack that makes the treadmill slightly less soul-crushing. A couple of years ago, I inherited a relic of the past: a first-generation iPad. This technological dinosaur is slower than me at mile 99 of a 100-mile race and has a battery life shorter than a Montana summer. I’d relegated it to glorified note-taking duty for presentations—useful but also worthy of being charged with misuse of technology.

Then, one day, after a snowstorm left my usual trails looking like a scene from Frozen, I brought the iPad to the gym. AND JUST WOW! I discovered I could watch shows while running. Revolutionary, right? Only one problem: I don’t actually watch movies or TV. I’ve somehow avoided it, like knowing my sodium sweat content. I have seen Breaking Bad three times, and Prison Break five times. That is about it. So…

I NEED YOUR HELP!

What treadmill-worthy shows should I be watching?

*****

And for anyone looking to stream something themselves and be educated at the same time, I put out a podcast episode with Pete Deneen all about the recent California Wildfires. I learned a lot, and I think you will, too!

Check it out on YouTube or listen in any podcast app. (Both Linked Below)