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Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green (2025)

Premise: A popular-level take on the history, science, and increasingly sociology, of humanity‘s deadliest disease.

Review: The Green brothers just seem like genuinely delightful, whip-smart, gracious, and deeply curious people, and this book hits on all those strengths. Cont.

Focusing on Henry, who is fighting TB in Sierra Leone, Green weaves his real experience with the history of tuberculosis & its far-reaching impact. He manages to bring humanity to a topic that could feel sterile in less gifted hands. He explores the stigmatization of the disease, both as an exclusion from society and as a glorified for the artistic. Like all his work, its beauty lies in his understanding of both humanity's flaws and strengths.

A more in depth conversation with the author of the new book ‘Everything Is Tuberculosis‘. I can‘t wait to read it! 🩸💉
Link to listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/99-invisible/id394775318?i=1000695605705

Everyone is talking about this book and I can‘t wait to read it! I‘ve always had a weird fascination with this famous, deadly, and historical disease. *This is one of the many reasons why USAID matters, Musk be damned.
Link for this podcast episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nprs-book-of-the-day/id1587369865?i=100070...

At first I wasn‘t sure about this when I picked it up since it‘s YA and I don‘t always gel with it, but I think this being aimed at a YA audience makes the subject much more accessible for those unfamiliar with TB and I found myself enjoying reading it. It made for a fascinating time since in the past I‘ve seen TB discussed from a historical angle and not from the present day like this one where it is still very much a problem in our world ⬇️

The disease was framed, as disease so often has been, as a moral quandary; if you don‘t wear high heels, and you don‘t live unnaturally in the city, and you don‘t drink, and you don‘t cry at night when you‘re 4 years old and miss your mother, then you will survive.

Death is natural. Children dying is natural. None of us actually want to live in a natural world. Treating disease is unnatural….and yet we tell ourselves that some, and only some, lives end naturally, which means acceptably.

This is really very good. Green reads the audiobook, which if you are a fan you will enjoy. I loved the mixture of history, little trivia facts, and heart wrenching personal stories. There is just enough levity here to not have the facts and heart of the book take you down. But the information is here and it is easy to see the urgency and why Green is so obsessed.
4.5/5

“And so we have entered a strange era of human history: A preventable, curable infectious disease remains our deadliest. That's the world we are currently choosing.“

I didn‘t have a book about tuberculosis being my most anticipated read for the year on my bingo card but I‘ve never felt more invested in following John Green down his TB rabbit hole.

I haven‘t verified but from a solid B,4⭐️ to A+,5⭐️ this might be my overall highest rated grid of 2025. The fiction was all so good and the one non-fiction so unexpectedly interesting that I had to tag it.

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

I am essentially a medical illiterate and my understanding of tuberculosis began and ended with knowing the abbreviation is TB. I couldn‘t resist being enlightened on this topic by John Green. I was hooked the whole way through and humbled by my ignorance on this topic. I now really want to visit the YouTube channel of Henry Reider.

The conversation with John Green and Kaveh Akbar last night was wonderful. I especially appreciated the times when they discussed current events and their impact on John's research. He described medical research like a staircase. We just fell down the stairs in terms of progress on eradicating Tuberculosis, but we pick ourselves up and climb again. We're not at the end of history despite how it may feel. We're in the middle.

There! That was fun. Definitely one I'll recommend in future. I think at times it did focus on an individual TB patient to an extent that some might find bothersome (and verging into inspiration porn, right after discussing how that was a weird cultural thing that wasn't great), but I think it does also serve as a good illustration of some of Green's points. The science was accurate.

Loved that, like me, Green is fascinated by TB, and has OCD.

“We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.

We must also be the cure.“

☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

I'm with Green on a lot of this; he's clearly done his research. Currently up to his chapter criticising DOTS (directly observed therapy short-course) and YES, though I think he's conflating DOTS and DOT wrongly (DOTS was a global strategy to use directly observed therapy, which has long been superseded; DOT is still used as part of wider efforts). Don't agree with him that streptomycin caused the decline in TB infections/mortality though.

“We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis. But we choose not to live in that world.“

Yep. Entirely true. We could drastically reduce the burden of tuberculosis in much less than a decade, if we were willing (even I can tell you how, and I'm just an MSc student who has specialised mildly into TB). We won't do it. That's a choice we've made. A choice we keep making. We're all culpable for this deliberate murder.

I genuinely got too excited thinking about this last night and couldn't fall asleep, so that is why, Your Honour, I did not get the seven+ hours of sleep my doctor has very firmly told me I should get...

And now it has arrived and I'm off work and can start reading it (and potentially arguing with it). Can you tell I have a Special Interest (TM)?

(I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on drug resistant TB and am now studying it during my MSc.)

My copy of Everything is Tuberculosis is here! I ordered the signed edition.

Book n' breakfast in bed: snow day edition ❄️ Who knew reading about disease could be so interesting? I found myself saying to Lucas over and over, "Did you know Tuberculosis..."

I have a snow day tomorrow! It's sunny and 75, but something called a bomb cyclone (??) is moving in tomorrow and we could get up to 10 inches of snow. Wild. But, that means I get to read John Green's new book before I see him this weekend!!

A perfect narrative history and resource for a then and now world from an author who lives and breathes all he has learned about Tuberculosis and is doing something about it! Well done and worth the read!

Expected publication March 18, 2025

I love John Green's Non-Fiction more than his Fiction. I learn so much while being thoroughly entertained!
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Green, a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, shares the poignant story of his friendship with Henry, a young tuberculosis patient from Sierra Leone. The book blends personal anecdotes with a powerful history of tuberculosis, revealing how social and healthcare inequities contribute to its devastating global impact.

I‘ve never been this excited to read a work of NF before! But I really enjoyed the Anthropocene Reviewed and I still watch the occasional Vlog Brothers video - so I‘m acquainted with John‘s musings on all things TB. It‘s unreasonable to wish for an international book tour… and yet I saw this on IG and felt a bit envious!