diff --git a/brozzler/worker.py b/brozzler/worker.py
index 3d20035..7279753 100644
--- a/brozzler/worker.py
+++ b/brozzler/worker.py
@@ -295,9 +295,13 @@ class BrozzlerWorker:
     def _get_page_headers(self, page):
         # bypassing warcprox, requests' stream=True defers downloading the body of the response
         # see https://docs.python-requests.org/en/latest/user/advanced/#body-content-workflow
-        with requests.get(page.url, stream=True) as r:
-            page_headers = r.headers
-        return page_headers
+        try:
+            with requests.get(page.url, stream=True, verify=False) as r:
+                page_headers = r.headers
+                return page_headers
+        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
+            self.logger.warning("Failed to get headers for %s: %s", page.url, e)
+            return {}
 
     def _needs_browsing(self, page_headers):
         if (