Maddie Bender for The New York Times: Can John Green Make You Care About Tuberculosis?

Mr. Green has emerged as an unlikely spokesman in the global effort to fight the disease. His latest project, a book called “Everything Is Tuberculosis,” interweaves the social and scientific histories of tuberculosis with the present-day story of a young man from Sierra Leone named Henry Reider.

It’s hard for me to overstate this high regard I have for John Green (and his brother Hank). I haven’t even read a single word of John’s fiction work (The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, etc.) but I have religiously watched his YouTube series vlogbrothers and greatly appreciate his ability to express empathy and insight into the human experience in a way I don’t see often in the world. The fact he’s taken his fame and fortune and directed his efforts at healthcare over the past 5 or so years is laudable. I currently make a monthly donation to Partners in Health, which is focused on strengthening healthcare in parts of the world that need it most.

More recently, John has been laser focused on tuberculosis, becoming one of the loudest voices raising awareness and creating action to reduce the number of people who die from this disease. As he will gladly tell you, tuberculosis has been the leading cause of death among all infectious diseases for decades (except for a few years when COVID took a commanding and tragic lead). The tragedy of that is that tuberculosis can be prevented with vaccines and recovered from with modern treatments, and it’s been this way for many decades. You, reading this most likely from a developed nation and may think of TB as something you read about in history books, and that’s because you and I live in places with the resources to use these modern tools, but not everyone is so lucky.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to his new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, and will be picking it up as soon as it’s out on March 18, 2025.