Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald returns to AVMA podcast with a values-first message
CURRENT BRIEF VERSION: Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald is back on the AVMA’s My Veterinary Life podcast with an update that’s less about a single announcement than a set of durable professional values: kindness, community involvement, conservation, and lifelong learning. In the January 8, 2026 episode, Fitzgerald — the Denver small animal veterinarian, author, stand-up comedian, and former Emergency Vets television personality — reflects on his 43-year career and discusses his memoir, It Started With a Turtle. Outside the podcast, that memoir has been positioned as a wide-ranging account of Fitzgerald’s work in practice, comedy, and wildlife conservation, underscoring how he has long linked companion animal medicine with broader civic and environmental engagement. (podcasts.apple.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, Fitzgerald’s message lands at a time when the field continues to talk openly about sustainability, wellbeing, and professional purpose. It also fits with a broader run of My Veterinary Life conversations that have highlighted compassion, courage, access to care, and service-minded career paths — from spectrum-of-care discussions with Drs. Kristin Jankowski and Sheena Warman to humanitarian relief updates from Dr. Jon Geller and student reflections on compassion fatigue and resilience from Mary Emfinger. His emphasis on kindness and community service likewise aligns with AVMA’s broader framing of veterinarians as contributors not only to animal health, but also to community health, animal welfare, and biodiversity. That makes this episode a reminder that career longevity in practice can be shaped as much by connection, curiosity, and service as by clinical skill alone. (podcasts.apple.com)
What to watch: Expect this conversation to resonate most in ongoing discussions about veterinary identity, mentorship, and how clinicians can connect everyday practice with welfare, access-to-care, humanitarian, and conservation work. Those links are increasingly explicit across veterinary media, including One Health conversations that frame animal, human, and environmental health as interconnected rather than separate. (podcasts.apple.com)