About a year ago I started running three miles a day, four or five days a week. Maintaining that pace requires the right listening material — I’m not able to run in silence.

But as much as I love music (see: this blog), it doesn’t help me run. I don’t get lost in the songs, but rather find myself waiting for each one to end. Music actually drags out the process rather than quickening it.

So instead I listen to podcasts. For about 6 months, I listened to the official Breaking Bad podcast — show-runner Vince Gilligan’s dissection (along with various cast and crew members) of every episode of my favorite show. But eventually I ran out of episodes.

I moved on to other TV podcasts, including True Detective and Justified, before that well ran dry.

Finally I stumbled upon Filmspotting, a weekly podcast that has run for nine years and 496 episodes (and counting). Hosts Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen are smart, witty and thoroughly entertaining as they dissect both new film releases and classics. The archive could keep me running for years.

One mainstay of Filmspotting is the weekly top five list. Adam and Josh come up with a new theme every week, usually tied in some way to their main review. “Top 5 Films with Place Names in their Title” was the list accompanying their review of Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. Other recent lists have covered “Top 5 Actor-Director Pairs,” “Top 5 Car Scenes,” “Top 5 Hostage Films,” “Top 5 Christ Figures,” “Top 5 Disney Villains” — you get the picture.

The list that has inspired my next week of posts is “Top 5 Desert Island Directors.” Josh and Adam didn’t approach it as their five favorite directors, but really took to heart the idea that these would be the only films you’d see while living alone on the proverbial island.

Adam, for example, chose documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, who has made dozens of films about everyday people and settings. His most recent film was At Berkeley, a 4-hour look at life on the storied campus. Adam’s rationale was that getting to experience the regular lives of so many different kinds of people would be essential for his mental health while trapped on the island.

I don’t like people enough to go that way on my own list (and I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that such a list is coming). But I like the idea of taking the desert island theme seriously. What range of entertainment do I want at my disposal in such a remote and lonely locale?

I’m giving myself a triple challenge, naming not just my top five desert island directors but also my five musical acts and television series. Next week I will name five honorable mentions, a practice the Filmspotting duo adheres to as well (because lovers of film — or music, or TV — can never just stop at five).

So here we go… starting with my #5 selection in the Music category.

Desert Island Musical Artists – #5 – Miranda Lambert

As you’ll see over the next four days, my desert island picks are largely dominated by men. I wanted a feminine presence in my music picks and it’s hard to beat Miranda Lambert.

She has released five solo albums plus two with Pistol Annies (side projects count for this exercise), every one of which is excellent from start to finish. In fact, she’s the only artist on this list who has yet to record a song I skip. Her songs run the gamut from brash and funny to bittersweet and melancholy. She has one of my favorite singing voices and all of her albums sound great.

I’m putting her in the fifth slot but I wouldn’t be surprised if she winds up getting played the most on this island.

Desert Island TV Series – #5 – Seinfeld

Just as my musical artists skew male, my TV picks skew toward drama. So I wanted to add a straight-up comedy to the mix, and you can’t do better than the most quotable TV show in history. Nine seasons of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer should keep me laughing on those lonely island nights.

Desert Island Movie Directors – #5 – Richard Linklater

The movie director list was the hardest to compile. I’ve had to leave some of my very favorite filmmakers for the honorable mentions. I wanted to have a mix of favorites and the opportunity for discovery, and Richard Linklater gives me a bit of both.

Dazed and Confused and the Before trilogy sit on my list of all-time favorites. I’ve loved films as varied as School of Rock, A Scanner Darkly and Bernie. And I have yet to see such titles as Tape, Me and Orson Welles and Fast Food Nation.

Additionally, so many of Linklater’s films, such as the Before trilogy, Slacker and Waking Life, involve deep, but natural, conversation. Watching those films is like joining those conversations, and I’m sure I’d welcome that opportunity on the island.

Finally, while my island rules do not allow for the delivery of every new work by my chosen artists, I will have access to the most imminent film, album or season. So Linklater’s Boyhood, my most anticipated film of 2014, would make the trip to the island. I look forward to its oceanside premiere.