Insights 2022/ 2023
At the Thackray Museum of Medicine we tell the stories of our health heroes and inspire the next generation of big thinkers. Established by Thackray’s co-founder Professor Monty Losowsky, our annual Insights Series continues to celebrate his legacy, exploring the lives touched by medical innovations both past and present. Every session includes two lectures delving deep into eye-opening topics and those that offer a different take on current public debate.
How did women negotiate sex and birth control in 1920s Britain?
How have outbreaks on the high seas influenced approaches to modern medicine?
And what can the potato teach us about attitudes to health in the 17th Century?
Our Insights Lecture series forms a core element of our Talks and Lates programme designed to spark debate around subjects large and small whilst exploring the advances that have shaped the way we look after ourselves, and each other.

Medical Stories from Africa
Experts talk us through the discovery of Sickle Cell Disease, its traits and diagnosis before we explore the fascinating history of mental health treatment across the African continent.
___
Hazardous Health through History
This lecture explored the history of patient safety in the NHS, explaining why a systemic focus on the prevention of harm to patients – despite the ethical injunction for clinicians to ‘do no harm’ – only evolved surprisingly recently in the history of medicine.
___
Spirits and Disease on the High Seas
Is brandy a medicine? In this Insights Lecture, find out everything there is to know on how shipborne diseases shaped public health with ‘Spirits & Disease on the High Seas’.
___
Ancient Wisdom in Modern Medicine
Find out about Greco-Roman medicine and what it can teach us today as well as palaeopaediatrics and the importance of understanding child health in the past.
___
Health & Horticulture
Want to discover the importance of the potato in the medical culinary imagination? This lecture uncovers how horticulture links to our health.
___
Birth and Childhood Medicine
This Insight Lecture covers important questions regarding childhood – from case studies in Bradford to the SARS-CoV2 vaccinations, there is a lot to be learnt.
___
New women, old remedies
Taking you back as far as the 1920s, this talk covers medical issues faced by women throughout history. Delve into the past and see how it can still be relevant today.