Growing healthier adult bodies: Lessons from rainforest communities

Tue 2 December 2025

Jesus College

What does parenting look like if you strip away the toys, nappies, and agonising over food choices? Three years ago, Dr Guen Bradbury and her family left a comfortable Cambridge life to spend a year living in traditional communities across South America and Africa.

The learning curve was certainly steep. While the adults were learning how to rescue lost fishing gear in piranha-infested waters and cut parasites out of each other’s feet, the children discovered how to make fires, run errands, and fit into schools in eight very different villages. Along the way, Guen and her family learned much about how human bodies grow, and how that growth affects health throughout a person’s entire life.

In the West, non-communicable diseases produce roughly 85% of disease burden. Avoiding them requires certain inputs during childhood that our upbringings no longer provide. With lessons from non-Westernised societies, we can fix that.

Join healthcare consultant and author Dr Guen Bradbury for a whistle-stop interactive tour of hidden causes and effects that span the 80 years after toddlerdom and see how modern developmental science and traditional childrearing practices go hand in hand.

After Guen’s talk, she’ll be joined by her partner Greg Dickens for a Q&A with attendees.

Cost: Free