Kevin Fitzgerald update highlights kindness, community, and conservation

CURRENT BRIEF VERSION: AVMA’s My Veterinary Life podcast has brought back Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald for an update that doubles as a reflection on a long, unusually public veterinary career. In the January 8, 2026, episode, Fitzgerald — a Denver small animal veterinarian, longtime Emergency Vets personality, author, comedian, and conservation advocate — discusses his memoir It Started With a Turtle, revisits lessons from roughly 43 years in practice, and emphasizes kindness, community involvement, and lifelong learning as core professional values. That message also fits a broader pattern in recent My Veterinary Life episodes, which have highlighted “be kind and be brave” conversations around spectrum of care, student perspectives on compassion and burnout, and return interviews with veterinarians doing humanitarian and One Health-adjacent work in crisis settings. Outside the podcast, Fitzgerald’s broader public profile includes more than four decades at Alameda East in Denver and conservation work tied to the Denver Zoo and projects in Mongolia. (podcasts.apple.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this isn’t hard news so much as a signal about what kinds of voices and values are resonating in the profession right now: relationship-centered care, public trust, courage in difficult conversations, and a wider view of veterinary impact beyond the exam room. Fitzgerald has argued that successful veterinarians need to connect with people, not just animals, and that emphasis lands in a podcast ecosystem that has recently featured access-to-care and spectrum-of-care leaders, a veterinary student speaking candidly about emotional strain and resilience, and Dr. Jon Geller’s account of border and war-zone veterinary relief work with explicit infectious-disease and One Health implications. His conservation work also aligns with the profession’s growing interest in One Health and planetary health frameworks, themes echoed in recent academic veterinary media such as Cornell’s spotlight on Dr. Steve Osofsky’s work linking wildlife, domestic animal, human, and ecosystem health. (colorado.edu)

What to watch: Expect continued interest in veterinary storytelling that connects clinical practice, public communication, access to care, conservation, and professional identity. (podcasts.apple.com)