Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By: John Green

Narrated by: John Green

Brought to you by Penguin.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing 1.5 million people every year.

In Everything is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.

©2025 John Green (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Complexity hidden in plain sight

John Green masks a very detailed non-fiction book under the guise of one man’s story, today, in a world where tuberculosis has hold. He understands that people care about people, it’s difficult to appreciate the difficulty of millions but through one man’s personal story we can project the devastation. I understand it now, and it is upsetting. If TB had malarias PR team it would be eradicated shortly. Maybe even previously.

So much more than a disease

Almost from the first words I've found myself filled with tears. Not just information about the disease but embracing history, sociology, colonialism, racism, and injustice. So many painful accounts of individual patients and yet signs of hope. I think I've been changed!!!

Heartbreaking, Hopeful, and Beautiful

John Green's non fiction is so beautifully written. He writes with so much passion, so much of himself. It doesn't matter if you are interested in TB or infectious diseases or their history and cures, this is a good read.