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Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

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Everything Is Tuberculosis

Written 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.

© John Green 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Physical Illness & Disease Science

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
An excellent analysis and the story of Tuberculosis - Incurable to Curable and again can turn incurable .
Well written in a short and crisp form - comprehensive coverage on the subject in the form of a real story and real people.

A must read to understand Tuberculosis

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As much as I like John and his previous work, he has painted a very simplistic picture of the world in this book. Henry's story was depicted through a lens of sympathetic superiority.
Overall, it was a good book if you are interested in a short history of the deadly disease.
But, in my humble opinion, Tuberculosis certainly isn't EVERYTHING.

Average story, narrated wonderfully

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The author had done a good research to make story informative useful and worthy. Effort to focus on not only on the drug but also the whole administration of the entire recovery period both at the individual level, society level and national level is important. Any survivor is an asset to the country he belongs. TB survivor can be very productive as the case study in the book highlights. At some places, I felt the style and accent of the reader was very much like that of Bill Gates. Good book

story has a focus

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John's research and storytelling makes this such a good listen. Although I live in a third-world country, TB has never been a fear in my world. People unfamiliar with history's bad deeds are bound to repeat them. Hence, this makes for an important book that I am glad I listened to.

An important book

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