diff --git a/pandas/_libs/intervaltree.pxi.in b/pandas/_libs/intervaltree.pxi.in
index ac713a928973f..08bfaf21db9fb 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/intervaltree.pxi.in
+++ b/pandas/_libs/intervaltree.pxi.in
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ cdef class IntervalTree(IntervalMixin):
 
         # TODO: write get_indexer_intervals
         cdef:
-            size_t old_len
+            Py_ssize_t old_len
             Py_ssize_t i
             Int64Vector result
 
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ cdef class IntervalTree(IntervalMixin):
         the given array of scalar targets. Non-unique positions are repeated.
         """
         cdef:
-            size_t old_len
+            Py_ssize_t old_len
             Py_ssize_t i
             Int64Vector result, missing
 
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx b/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx
index 1c2f80b832201..36dddbb446e83 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx
@@ -2066,7 +2066,7 @@ def maybe_convert_objects(ndarray[object] objects, bint try_float=0,
                 floats[i] = float(val)
                 complexes[i] = complex(val)
                 seen.float_ = 1
-            except Exception:
+            except (ValueError, TypeError):
                 seen.object_ = 1
                 break
         else:
@@ -2346,7 +2346,8 @@ def to_object_array_tuples(rows: object):
             row = rows[i]
             for j in range(len(row)):
                 result[i, j] = row[j]
-    except Exception:
+    except TypeError:
+        # e.g. "Expected tuple, got list"
         # upcast any subclasses to tuple
         for i in range(n):
             row = (rows[i],) if checknull(rows[i]) else tuple(rows[i])
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/tslibs/parsing.pyx b/pandas/_libs/tslibs/parsing.pyx
index 33665484311ba..bf0a0ae5a3fe9 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/tslibs/parsing.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/tslibs/parsing.pyx
@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ def try_parse_dates(object[:] values, parser=None,
                 else:
                     result[i] = parse_date(values[i])
         except Exception:
-            # failed
+            # Since parser is user-defined, we can't guess what it migh raise
             return values
     else:
         parse_date = parser
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/tslibs/timezones.pyx b/pandas/_libs/tslibs/timezones.pyx
index cbfbc14c35b35..bc1fdfae99de9 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/tslibs/timezones.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/tslibs/timezones.pyx
@@ -226,11 +226,8 @@ cdef object get_dst_info(object tz):
         if treat_tz_as_pytz(tz):
             trans = np.array(tz._utc_transition_times, dtype='M8[ns]')
             trans = trans.view('i8')
-            try:
-                if tz._utc_transition_times[0].year == 1:
-                    trans[0] = NPY_NAT + 1
-            except Exception:
-                pass
+            if tz._utc_transition_times[0].year == 1:
+                trans[0] = NPY_NAT + 1
             deltas = unbox_utcoffsets(tz._transition_info)
             typ = 'pytz'