Lisa Tamati has spent 25 years pushing the limits of human endurance and 11 years at the frontier of longevity science and functional medicine. She doesn't just talk about resilience — she has lived it at its most extreme, and built the clinical expertise to back it up.
As a former ultra-endurance athlete who ran thousands of kilometres across the world's wildest terrain — including the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, the Gobi, and Death Valley — Lisa developed a mental and physical toughness forged in conditions most people will never encounter. Ten years ago, her mother Isobel collapsed with a massive brain aneurysm. Doctors offered little hope. Lisa refused to accept it and brought her back. Four and a half years ago, Isobel was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given weeks to live. Again, Lisa refused the prognosis, studied functional medicine and genetics, and brought her back again. In the years between and since, Isobel has survived sepsis, hip fractures, and gastrointestinal bleeds — each time written off, each time defying the odds. Today she shows no detectable sign of cancer and attends the gym five days a week in her mid-eighties.
That journey became the foundation for everything Lisa does today. She is co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Aevum Labs, a New Zealand longevity biotech, and runs a clinical practice in Taranaki working with complex chronic cases. For over a decade she has hosted Pushing The Limits — one of the world's longest-running health optimisation podcasts, ranked in the global top 2% with over 500,000 downloads, 2 million YouTube views, and 450+ episodes.
The author of four books including Relentless, her forthcoming title The Longevity Survival Guide: What to Do When Conventional Medicine Has Run Out of Options is due in 2026. Her audiences don't just leave inspired — they leave with a fundamentally different understanding of what the human body and mind are capable of, and practical tools to act on it..
Talking Points
Ultra-Endurance to Life's Edge
Over 25 years, Lisa ran thousands of kilometres across the world's wildest terrain — the Sahara, the Himalayas, the Gobi Desert, and Death Valley. This is not a talk about running. It is a talk about the architecture of a mind that refuses to quit — and how every person in the room can access that same architecture when facing their own mountain. Raw, funny, and genuinely awe-inspiring. Perfect for corporate leadership, sales and performance teams, professional development, sports organisations, and any audience navigating significant challenge or change. Available as a 45-minute or 60-minute keynote with Q&A.
Ultra-Endurance to Life's Edge
Against All Odds
Over the past decade, Lisa has fought for her mother's life multiple times — a brain aneurysm, terminal brain cancer, sepsis, hip fractures, gastrointestinal bleeds. Each time, medicine said there was no way out. Each time, Lisa found one. This is not a talk about one miracle. It is a talk about what happens when you refuse, over and over, to accept a prognosis as a sentence. Perfect for women's leadership events, health and aged care conferences, community events, medical and allied health audiences, and corporate teams navigating major change. Available as a 45-minute or 60-minute keynote with Q&A.
Against All Odds
The Longevity Imperative
Corporate wellness is evolving fast — and the organisations winning the war for talent and productivity are the ones taking human performance seriously at a biological level. Lisa has spent 11 years at the frontier of longevity and health optimisation, interviewing over 450 of the world's leading researchers and applying that knowledge clinically. This talk cuts through the noise: what the evidence actually shows about energy, cognitive performance, stress resilience, and healthy ageing — and what your people can do about it starting today. Perfect for corporate wellness programmes, HR leadership events, executive health retreats, insurance and financial services, and workplace health and safety conferences. Available as a 45-minute keynote, 60-minute keynote with Q&A, or 90-minute interactive workshop.
The Longevity Imperative
Decoding Your Biology
We are not average. Yet most health advice — and most workplace wellness programmes — are built around averages. Lisa works at the clinical frontier of personalised medicine: using genomics, biomarker testing, immune health assessment, and functional health protocols to identify why individuals feel, perform, and age the way they do. This talk maps the landscape of what is now possible, why it matters for organisations, and what individuals can do to get ahead of a seismic shift in how we understand human health. Perfect for corporate HR wellness, insurance sector, medical and allied health professionals, aged care technology, and innovation conferences. Available as a 45-minute keynote or 90-minute workshop.
Decoding Your Biology
The Science of Not Dying
Energetic, accessible, and deliberately straight-talking — this is longevity and human performance science for people who want the substance without the jargon. Drawing on 450+ interviews with the world's leading researchers, Lisa distils what is real, what is noise, and what you can actually do to change how you age and perform. Delivered with humour, honesty, and the authority of someone who has lived inside this world for over a decade and applies it every day in clinical practice. Perfect for innovation and futures conferences, TEDx, style events, public festivals, financial services, and general conference audiences. Available as a 30-minute or 45-minute keynote.
The Science of Not Dying
Topics
Video
Lisa Tamati Promo Reel
Documentary - The world's highest race - 222km in the himalayas
Racing the Gobi Desert
Death Valley - Running through Hell - 217km
Run the Planet - Outback Australia
You were the favourite speaker of the day. Combining personal stories, humour and strong principles to deliver a powerful message. As a professional speaker myself I know when someone is goo ... keep reading Bartercard
Lisa Tamati was funny, engaging, and also profound and inspirational. Good use of videos which really helped her story come to life. She was awe inspiring. So many people came up to me and said they could have listened to her stories all night. The time flew by. Her determination, passion, enthusiasm, easy manner and sheer grit is amazing. I would recommend her without hesitation.
Such a pleasure to have Lisa with us for our Regional Design Awards dinner in Wellington – she kept our audience enthralled and well entertained for the 30 minute guest speaker session – we could have listened to her all night! Her professionalism yet down to earth, relatable presentation style fitted perfectly with our evening and she tied in connecting with our organisation, relating to our members, their businesses and the team messaging. Very inspirational and we have received excellent feedback from our attendees. Thanks so much Lisa for bringing your story and energy to our evening – you are a very special human, it is an honour to have met you – you are definitely an inspiration to us all!
Todd Energy is always seeking to provide a range of interesting and thought-provoking speakers and presenters to its people, and Lisa’s presentation was inspiring and very well received.
Lisa called my the morning of the event to let me know she was going through a family emergency, to which I immediately assumed she wouldn't be able to make it, but as the strong-willed runner that she is, her perseverance shines in every aspect of her life it seems. She was extremely professional and her speech was the perfect fit for our event, many of our awards winners took on what she said and quoted her in their acceptance speeches. She really made an impact of the students.
Lisa was outstanding! Her enthusiasm and authenticity is second to none, and the learnings along her life journey shared with us last weekend had motivated our team and we walked away with MASSIVE smiles (and purchased several of her books - which reminds me I need to download her podcast!). We wanted an impactful, kiwi-born, full of heart speaker who can speak and relate to our team - she did that and more! We knew she'd be great, but everything was on point to the message we wanted our team to understand - working together, perseverance, routine, get-back-up, try again, you have a team behind you!! So that was amazing - thanks Lisa, thank you Steph & Rachel!
Lisa is an amazing, engaging speaker. Her stories were very personal, and quite incredible in terms of her endurance, inner strength and relentless drive, and she relayed them powerfully and effectively. The audience were totally engaged. We knew Lisa would be great but she exceeded our expectations as a speaker.
Such a powerful presentation. To get a standing ovation from our people was just outstanding. Thank you so much for your energy and telling your story with such passion
Having Lisa as our opening speaker at our conference was a superb choice: inspirational, authentic and engaging, relatable. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, experience, and the reality that is your life - you are amazing!
Lisa was amazing, relevant, real, honest and engaging. She received a 3 min standing ovation at the end. Feedback has been exceptional. Lisa was a pleasure to deal with and stayed around to speak with individuals at the end. Lisa was one of the best conference presenters we've seen in years. So pleased we engaged with her!
Lisa was well prepared and arrived early test her presentation as it contained video footage. Our delegates loved Lisa's presentation and feedback has been very positive, stating that they felt inspired and for a couple of the delegates her presentation has provided the motivation to make some life changing decisions. We have used many speakers before and I would rate Lisa as one of the best that we have had.
Lisa had a fascinating story to tell of her courageous and adventurous life to date, along with sharing her very personal story of her mum's illness and the journey she and her family have been on together with this. There wasn't a dry eye in the room! Again, thank you so much for providing such an amazing speaker to open our conference she was amazing!
I really appreciated how Lisa adapted her presentation to work with the NZDF Trentham Mental Health and Wellbeing Week focus.Lisa's story and achievements are inspiring as well as an example of true courage and resilience. I would highly recommend Lisa for any group or organisation as her journey has something in it for everyone to learn from or be encouraged by
Lisa has made us step up. To see her dogged determination and inner strength facing the odds and knowing no bounds has placed any thought of ever giving up far from our minds. Lisa, we thank you for your candid honesty of the trails and trials across distances than no one of us ever thought possible.
Lisa is such an inspirational and passionate speaker. She has the ability to really connect with the audience and bring out their emotions. At several times during her presentation, people in the audience had tears in their eyes after hearing her incredible story of determination and overcoming the odds in the most challenging of circumstances. We haven't received such fantastic feedback for any speaker before!
