Skip to content
Home » More Nows: An ER Doctors Prescription for Longevity: Parker Hays (Transcript)

More Nows: An ER Doctors Prescription for Longevity: Parker Hays (Transcript)

Read the full transcript of board-certified emergency physician, expert speaker and certified coach Dr. Parker Hays’ talk titled “More Nows: An ER Doctors Prescription for Longevity” at TEDxBrevard, June 4, 2025.

Listen to the audio version here:

A Life-Changing Moment in the ER

Dr. Parker Hays: He was gripping both bed rails, leaning forward, gasping, and said, “Please, please find my brother. He understands me.” At least I think that’s what he said. It was difficult to understand him with a wet oxygen mask and that much shortness of breath.

In a career of crazy times, it was a crazy time to be in the emergency department. Strange new virus, halls full of patients, new information coming in all the time, lots of misinformation, political missteps, missteps by leaders, and oddly enough, the victims themselves were sometimes ostracized. He was a picture of 28-year-old health just a little while ago. But now he was stricken, alone in my ER, imploring me to do the one thing that was still so important to him: connect him to his people. So I tried my best.

Lessons from 33 Years in Emergency Medicine

I’ve had the privilege of being an emergency physician for 33 years. I’ve worked over 6,000 shifts here in the United States and abroad. What a classroom. I mean, my patients have taught me so many things. But today, I’m going to tell you what they have taught me about human longevity, which I submit is nothing short of the point of it in the first place.

Then we’re going to look at what science says actually works, what correlates with us living longer. We’ll combine these two concepts, and when we do, our way forward together will be undeniable.

The Revolution in Human Lifespan

Human lifespan is no longer thought of in a finite, fatalistic, when-it’s-my-time-it’s-my-time kind of way, but rather something over which we may wield some control. And by historical standards, we have good reasons for thinking so. It took us tens of thousands of years to evolve to an average human life expectancy of about 30, but we’ve more than doubled it in just the last century or so.

And now, legitimate science says that we may not only just help young people survive, but we might actually be able to expand the envelope of human capability, what we could do. Legitimate scientists say things like a much greater percentage of children born today will become centenarians or hundred-year-old people, and maybe even the first person to be 140 or 150 is already alive.

Two major shifts have occurred. First, unprecedented levels of intellectual and monetary capital are being devoted to this question. By academia, by traditional institutions, yes, but also private industry. Google, $1.5 billion to build Calico Labs, a state-of-the-art facility devoted solely to human longevity.

And there’s the second shift. Now we’re studying aging as a thing to be reckoned with, to understand the biology of it, to treat it, maybe even reverse it, instead of just the resultant chronic illnesses that we all know about. We have our best minds working on it, and unreal resources to back them up.

What People Really Want When Time Is Running Out

But really, what’s the point? I mean, I’m an emergency doctor. To get you a bunch of thens, like some days, that would be really great. But I’m spending a lot of my time and energy just trying to get you some more right nows. But therein lies the instruction.

ALSO READ:  Is Your T-shirt Poisoning Your Skin? - Priyanka Ladha (Transcript)

You see, when faced with the notion that their right nows might be ending, or at least limited, people reveal what they value, what’s really important to them. And I get to hear what they say when they think their lives are really in peril. And then with or without my help, they sometimes renew their lease on life.

People want what they really want when they think there’s not enough time left. And it’s a unifying concept. They don’t wax nostalgic or yearn for more time with their job, their money, their house, their car, even their art or their hobbies. They just want their people. Their social connection to humanity is what they have taught me again and again, is the point of longevity.

A Story from Abu Dhabi

I was on duty once, overnight shift, single coverage in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. A concerned neighbor flies up to the emergency department and drops off a man who looked a lot older than he probably was. He was dressed in the long white flowing garments characteristic of the region. And it wasn’t clear how coherent he was either. He kept saying the same word again and again. “Isha, Isha, Isha.”

Even my Jordanian nurse, Yusuf, my Arabic translator, was confused by what the man was trying to say or what he wanted. Yusuf concluded that the man was distraught because he hadn’t been able to complete the night prayer in Islam, Isha. And now it was early morning.

Well, the man wasn’t particularly responsive to us. We did our medical maneuvers and I got him admitted to hospital. Sometime later, a woman arrived who said she was his wife. Although she was completely covered in black, except for the thin slit where her eyes shone, he spied her in a distant doorway. And immediately his tiny, frail arms sprang out and apart. And he revealed not only what was so important to him, but also the conduit to his clarity and coherence. “Although her given name was something else, he calls me Isha,” she said.

Remember our first patient, young, previously healthy, now dying in a pandemic? Maybe you assume that patient had COVID-19. But I saw that patient over 30 years ago in the crowded hallway of an ER not that far from here. He had a strange new virus called HIV. The lessons remain the same.

As an aside, yes, I have practiced and somehow survived through a whole bunch of demics. Two big pandemics, a lot of epidemics, and a whole lot of academics.