Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By: John Green

Narrated by: John Green

John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.

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

In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. 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 advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequi­ties that allow this curable, preventable infec­tious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a 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 Listening Library

Nonfiction Literature

I initially bought this book because I was a fan of John Green and watched his YouTube channel sometimes. I now feel as though I have woken up and become a person in the world for the first time through the story of Henry and his struggle for treatment. The past becomes present, and I have come to realize that, as Green puts it, “Nothing is so privileged as to believe that history is in the past.”

Butterflies

Following the thread of cause and effect from a disease to major historical points and even our group psychology is fascinating.

Informative and Entertaining

If you like reading interesting non fiction then this is the book for you. Interspersed with interesting history facts of tuberculosis with the author’s own personal anecdotes. This is a short read that could act as a jumping off point for further research and readings.

Amazing and sooooo well written

This is a fascinating account with science and heart. I loved it. I see the world a little differently now. Cowboy hats, classic literature and Adirondack chairs are different now. Highly recommend this book.

John Green Does It Again

John Green managed to increase both my knowledge and capacity for empathy yet again with this work. I enjoy his works of fiction, but The Anthropocene Reviewed is my favorite. This book is a very close second. I think it should be required reading for all.

Not what I expected, but a good read.

I was anticipating more of a narrative non-fiction; I think John Green is really great at that. This can be seen especially in Anthropocene Reviewed.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book. It is very much a work of non-fiction, but it does splash in aspects of storytelling. Before John Green, I thought that tuberculosis was just a thing of the past, but now I realize it isn’t. One thing I really appreciated about this book was that it is framed in a way that is challenging, but hopeful.

Emotional

It was hard to finish. Not because of the quality of writing, but the emotional impact. It will have your crying, and mad at the injustice it highlights. Also make you wonder if you have TB that lays in wait. Despite all of that it still end with inspiring hope. The author John Green does a great job narrating.

If you’re open to learning anything at all, John Green can teach it to you

Another immersive, informational and moving account of JG’s interests. TB around the world, inequality on a horrific scale through history and a call to action.
John Green hasn’t made me cry in a while, but this got me there.

Deeply impactful, beautifully written

Well, @John Green - Polo. If you know, you know.
Deeply impactful and absolutely beautiful book that is full of despair and hope at the same time. Thank you. That is all.

Short but enlightening

Well written and interesting. Narrated well and it has John Green’s introspective literary flavor.
Kind of a bummer overall however.