Episode 28 - Risk to Blossom

Former Timber Creek A&P student Izaiah Burgos joins Peter for a second conversation after the first recording was lost to file corruption. Izaiah is now a large- and small-carnivore animal care keeper on the West Coast, and his path there took him from a pre-med track that never felt right, through a zookeeping internship in Sarasota, to jobs in Arizona and California. Five years into zookeeping, Izaiah talks openly about imposter syndrome, burnout, and the frustration of advocating for animals that can’t speak for themselves. He also explains why he’s ready for what comes next. Peter shares his own early teaching years, when he had one foot out the door and felt like he wasn’t living up to expectations. The conversation also moves into bigger questions: whether hunting can be a form of conservation, what carrying capacity looks like when humans have already reshaped the land, whether zoos should exist at all, and why Izaiah thinks no one should keep a fox as a pet, no matter how cute they are. Izaiah also shares a few of the quotes he lives by, including the one this episode is named after. Growth isn’t always linear, and sometimes staying where you are hurts more than risking moving on. Follow @The_catchinguppodcast on Instagram for clips every Friday and new episodes every Wednesday.