Everything Is Tuberculosis Audiobook By John Green cover art

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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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.

© John Green 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 History History & Philosophy Physical Illness & Disease Science Respiratory Disease

Critic reviews

Earnest and empathetic
Everything Is Tuberculosis doesn’t so much tell you the story of tuberculosis, as much as it gently holds your hand and parts the curtains into one of the darkest, most bizarre, and frustrating series of decisions in world history with the other... A quintessential John Green book: one that grapples with the issue of mortality and our conflicting desires to both help and hurt one another, all within the backdrop of the coming of age of a young man
Green uses the stories of real people to turn overwhelming problems into something personal and understandable.
This highly readable call to action could not be more timely
Henry’s story is hopeful and heartbreaking; readers will be rooting for him and his family the whole way through
Green writes expertly of the illness’s history, causes (malnutrition, poverty, bad sanitation, etc.), and cure… Insightful and extremely well and clearly written, Everything Is Tuberculosis makes what might be inaccessible accessible
In these challenging times, the global health community is fortunate to count on Green and his inspiring advocacy
A story of hope and tragedy that feels terribly relevant at a time when the global healthcare system is coming under attack.
An exceptional combination of memoir, medical history and cultural analysis…. Memorably probes the intersections of medicine and human emotion
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Complexity hidden in plain sight

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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!!!

So much more than a disease

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John Green wasn't content with only making us cry with a fictional story like the fault in our stars. He wanted us to cry over Henry and a million people who died of a disease which 100% should have been eliminated decades ago.

An insightful read about disease but most importantly poverty, geography and race.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on Audible. John Green is an exceptional narrator.

Ready to cry and despair ?

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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.

Heartbreaking, Hopeful, and Beautiful

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