Mothering Wildlife Elizabeth Johnson

My guest this week, Carly, and I talk about the postpartum period. There are so many changes that occur during that "4th trimester". As you approach the end of your maternity leave you might find yourself excited to return to work but also guilty about having to leave your child. You've just gotten into a rhythm of being a mom and then you get thrown back into work and trying to figure out how to merge that new mom life with your work life can be hard! Especially when ...

As a working professional, when you suddenly step into the world of motherhood, it can sometimes feel as if you now have two identities. Motherhood, and in the case of most of this podcast's guests, zookeeper. My guest this week, Kristine Duplisea, and I talk a little bit about this. We also talk about how maternity leave can feel so isolating, especially if you don't have a "village" to help you out. We put so much emphasis on learning how to be a mom prior to having ...

Animal care professionals work so hard to get into the zoo field. Internships, commutes, low pay, time spent away from family and friends - all this because they love what they do and oftentimes consider it their passion. They can’t imagine doing anything else. My guest this week, Kristen, and I talk about how it feels to be working your dream job but also feel like you hate leaving your kid to do it. Kristen has definitely worked hard to make it work throughout her career.&n...

Can you train your kids the same way you train zoo animals? My guest this week, Sarah Kirkman, is a zookeeper at the Columbus Zoo and mom to two small children and she has a great story about putting her animal training skills to use!How zookeeper skills transfer over to one’s mom life is not the only thing Sarah and I talk about though. We talk a little about whether it is harder to go back to work after the first kid or after the second. Everyone has different experiences and there ar...

My guest this week, Lindsay Ireland, is a penguin keeper at the Detroit Zoo. We talk a bit about being pregnant while working with penguins and then dive into how as a new mom it can be so hard not to compare oneself to other mothers and your baby to other babies. As a new mom, Lindsay found herself researching everything but realized that having her mom nearby helped keep her grounded and confident that she didn’t have to do the same as everyone else. We also talk about the financ...

Join me this week for something a little bit different - Zoological Podcast Summit 2024! Myself, Jon Rossi from the Rossifari Podcast and Chris Jenkins from the NEI TEC Talk Podcast spend some time talking about hosting zoo-focused podcasts. Each one of us fills a very niche role within the zoo podcast world. Jon interviews and highlights amazing zoo, aquarium, and conservation professionals while Chris co-hosts the NEI TEC Talk Podcast which focuses on animal behavior and t...