Tuberculosis isn’t a disease most people in the West think about anymore. Aside from the mandatory Mantoux skin test required by different employers over my career, I didn’t think much of TB either. I’m a pharmacist but I’ve never dispensed drugs that treat TB. But TB is still around – you just need to know where to look, and what to look for. I first heard about Everything Is Tuberculosis when it was referenced by the hosts of the This Week in Virology podcast. Shortly after, I heard an interview with the book’s author, John Green on another podcast – this one was 99% Invisible, a podcast that examines the hidden layers of our built environment.
As someone who’s always trying to improve their science communication — I was intrigued. The book, a mix of history, memoir, and epidemiology, was getting attention and praise from both health professionals and the general public alike, which is a science communicator’s dream. I picked up the book expecting a straightforward explainer of an ancient disease that never really went away. What I found was an engrossing, evidence-informed narrative on disease, stigma, and how we talk about illness. Green’s exploration of tuberculosis, once dubbed “the romantic disease,” goes beyond basic facts and clinical pathology. It digs into the cultural and psychological traces the disease has imprinted on society, and how the disease persists despite our knowledge of how to eliminate it.
The author and his approach
This was my first John Green book. Green is best known for his blockbuster young adult novels and educational YouTube work. His most recent nonfiction book The Anthropocene Reviewed was a worldwide bestseller. Everything is Tuberculosis is his second nonfiction book. Green is an advocate for global health initiatives, so it is perhaps appropriate that he has turned his attention to an ancient disease that continues to kill over a million people each year – often quietly, and generally not even remarked on by mainstream media.
Green approaches TB as an observer, seeking to understand and describe the disease at the individual but also the societal level. His narrative blends personal observations and reflections with an accessible, well-researched account of tuberculosis as both a biological entity and a cultural force. What he’s written isn’t a sterile medical explainer, but a discussion on how societies react to, mythologize, and sometimes forget diseases that are no longer seen as visible or urgent.
“Nothing is so privileged as thinking history belongs to the past.”
John Green
More than a disease: TB as a metaphor and mirror
Everything Is Tuberculosis is less about the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and more about what the disease does to the individual (beyond the pathology), and how it continues to influence society. Green treats TB not just as a medical issue, but as a metaphor, a social marker, and a vehicle for stigma. He weaves in the story of one individual, Henry, a 17-year-old boy Green met at a hospital in Sierra Leone. Through the book, Henry’s clinical case and personal battle with TB put a human face to the global neglect and complex realities of treating TB.
Green explores how tuberculosis has shaped literature, art, architecture and even design, like the Adirondack Chair. Its romanticized past (e.g., the weight loss and pallor were seen as desirable) continues to distort our understanding of what continues to be a persistent threat. The disease is everywhere, Green argues, yet invisible—still harming millions, yet absent from health narratives in high-income countries.
Green traces TB’s influence and impact and adds self-reflection with his own medical issues, describing his experience with managing chronic illness and anxiety. It prompts the reader to really consider not only the biology of a disease, but also its psychological and emotional dimensions. Throughout the book, Green makes the case that how we talk about illness matters, and that ignoring diseases like TB doesn’t make them go away—it just makes them harder to fight.
Accuracy without jargon
While I am not an infectious diseases expert, those that are have praised the book. Everything Is Tuberculosis is well-researched and provided facts without being academic, or losing the reader in detail. Green doesn’t attempt to teach microbiology, but he communicates the key aspects of the disease and its treatment effectively. He discusses antibacterial resistance from a patient and health-system perspective, which is more effective than delving into the nuances of drug resistance. Perhaps Green’s greatest triumph here is to communicate the ongoing threat of TB in a way that is both accurate but also compelling to a general audience that may not have ever thought about it.
Green effectively demonstrates how narrative can shape public understanding of science and health. By humanizing TB—through the story of Henry, and historical context—Green encourages the reader to move past the idea that diseases only matter when they’re novel, in the news, or close to home. Green’s book provides an example of science communication that is emotionally very effective, without sacrificing accuracy. It’s a reminder of the adage that facts rarely change minds; stories do. For health professionals like me, it’s a reminder that effectively engaging the public isn’t just about delivering data—it’s about building a connection and fostering empathy.
Framing illness as even involving morality seems to me a mistake, because of course cancer does not give a shit whether you are a good person. Biology has no moral compass. It does not punish the evil and reward the good. It doesn’t even know about evil and good.
John Green
Stigma is a way of saying, “You deserved to have this happen,” but implied within the stigma is also, “And I don’t deserve it, so I don’t need to worry about it happening to me.
Remembering what we would rather forget
Everything Is Tuberculosis arrives at an important moment. As we have emerged from a pandemic that has reshaped public perceptions of infectious disease and the role of public health in controlling it, we are again at risk of making decisions that shift our focus from these invisible but pervasive illnesses that continue to kill so many. And some governments are actively moving to ignore those social determinants of health that have a huge impact on our overall quality of life.
In the 99 Percent Invisible podcast interview, Green laments the destruction of USAID and what this may mean for TB programs, and for individuals just like Henry who rely on public health programs to access effective treatments. Eliminating these programs will inevitably lead to more bacterial resistance, and more misery and death.
“What’s different now from 1804 or 1904 is that tuberculosis is curable, and has been since the mid-1950s. We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis. But we choose not to live in that world.”
John Green
Ultimately, this is a book about much more than tuberculosis. It’s about how we understand and talk about disease, how we remember it, and what it means to live in a world where people would rather not be reminded of unpleasant thoughts or how society influences individual health outcomes. For science advocates, Everything Is Tuberculosis offers a compelling example of how science communication can be effective: accurate, rigorous, empathetic and personal. For everyone, Everything Is Tuberculosis will change how you look at the world.