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Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

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Everything Is Tuberculosis

By: John Green
Narrated by: John Green
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About this listen

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 Contagious Diseases History History & Philosophy Physical Illness & Disease Science Respiratory Disease
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Novelist, YouTuber and observer John Green presents a history of the treatment of tuberculosis and the people it has affected. While this book starts with some wide-ranging trivia relating to the historical influence of TB, and returns there occasionally, central to the book is the story of the treatment of TB, and the story of one family affected by it. John Green presents this with all the humanity you'd expect from a man who "fell into" an interest in tuberculosis while visiting a school he helped to fund. A great listen.

On hope, humanity and tuberculosis

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Compelling. Well read and well written. This was worth waiting for. Bravo John, and bravo Henry Rider.

Nailed it

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well researched and well told look into TB. makes strong arguments for better and more just delivery of global health

thoroughly recommend

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A compelling book that details the subtleties of the Tuberculosis disease, what causes it to be such a perpetual problem and the shines light on the human cost.

Worth a listen to gain an understanding for what is distant problem far from the radar of most but life altering for so many.

Compelling Peek into the World's Most Devastating and Curable Diseases

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Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green is a deeply moving and surprisingly funny nonfiction book about one of humanity’s deadliest diseases. I wasn’t initially excited to read a book on tuberculosis, but I’m so glad I gave this one a go, Green’s writing is smart, empathetic, and engaging.

He weaves together the story of Henry, a young TB patient he met in Sierra Leone, with the larger history of the disease and the sociopolitical choices that allow it to persist. There are moments of laughter, heartbreak, and real outrage, all presented in a way that never feels purely clinical. Green makes the science accessible, but more importantly, he humanizes the fight against TB and highlights how much of this crisis is about inequality.

Overall, it’s easily one of the best nonfiction books I’ve read in a while, informative, emotional, and ultimately hopeful. My rating: 4.8/5

A must read

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