Ava Giere | Junior Copyeditor

Author, YouTuber, and philanthropist John Green visited the Clark Family Branch of the St. Louis County Library to discuss his latest book, “Everything is Tuberculosis,” on March 23. Green wrote the book to bring attention to tuberculosis (TB), which, although curable, remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease. TB principally harms people in impoverished places who can’t afford or access treatment. Incarcerated people or people working in crowded conditions, such as factories, are also at increased risk.

Outside of his TB advocacy, many WashU students might recognize Green from his young adult novels, including “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Turtles All the Way Down”; his VlogBrothers YouTube channel with his brother Hank Green; or the brothers’ educational video series Crash Course. VlogBrothers was one of the first successful channels on YouTube, and Crash Course is a staple of many high school classrooms and late-night cram sessions.

Tickets for the St. Louis stop on Green’s book tour sold out within four hours of their release, according to Kristen Sorth, Director of the St. Louis County Library. “[This tour] might be one of [our] top-five fastest sellouts,” she told the audience.  

Onstage, Green began by briefly FaceTiming Henry Reider, a TB survivor whose story comprises a large part of the book. Green mentioned a number of Reider’s accomplishments, including that Reider has a YouTube channel and is a student at the University of Sierra Leone. “I think it’s really important not to essentialize people,” Green said. “My brother is a cancer survivor, but he’s also a TikTok sensation.”

As the event continued, Green was interviewed by his wife, Sarah Urist Green, who joked that this was her first time interrogating him since their first date.

When asked why he decided to write a book about TB now, Green explained that it “felt necessary,” especially after meeting TB patients who were suffering at an under-resourced hospital in Lakka, Sierra Leone. “I think storytelling is essential to close empathy-gaps and understand that other people’s lives are as real and multitudinous as our own,” he said. 

Recent cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) loomed over the discussion. “I would like the book to be less relevant,” the author said. “By defunding so much of the USAID TB response, people whose treatment has been interrupted will develop drug resistance … [and there will be] more resistant strains circulating in those communities. … Most of those people will die from TB.” 

Green disagreed with the notion that aid is a “one-way street” and that “poor countries should be grateful” for American contributions. “It shouldn’t be that way,” he said, citing house-call checkups in low-income countries as a successful healthcare practice that the U.S. could learn from.

TB is a heavy topic, and Green engaged the audience with hope and humor. To argue that “diseases of injustice” should be a greater global priority, Green shared statistics, including that 1.25 million people died from TB in 2023, and quoted “notable theologian Timotheé Chalamet.” Chalamet said during a 2022 press junket: “Societal collapse is in the air.”

“Timmy Chimmy came up with that one,” Green said. 

The title “Everything is Tuberculosis” is meant to be taken literally, according to Green, who considers TB to be a social, political, and historical problem rather than a scientific one. Appealing to his large social media following, Green posted a slew of short videos about how everything — from the “Barbie” movie to cowboy hats to Tim Burton characters — relates to TB.

Throughout the talk, Green’s sense of humor was just one way of encouraging the audience to choose action instead of despair. Green said he views “accompanying people through suffering as kind of the meaning of life.” 

Josie A., who wished to be identified by her last initial, is a member of the grassroots organization TBFighters, a group of volunteers from John Green’s fan base, Nerdfighteria. TBFighters are dedicated to lobbying for broader access to TB care. Josie staffed an information table at the event, traveling hundreds of miles to attend the talk.

“Just hearing John talk about it, and his passion, inspired me to learn more,” Josie said of her involvement with the organization. “We formed TBFighters around the Danaher call-to-action that John Green brought to Nerdfighteria’s attention.” 

Danaher is a large biomedical company that, in part, oversees the design and production of TB diagnostic kits. Green asked his followers to advocate for Danaher to lower the prices of their TB test kit and the specialized ink-printing cartridges required to use them. The TBFighters joined forces to do so, leading to the formation of the organization.

“We call ourselves ‘bees in a trenchcoat’ … as TBFighters, just cause we’re organized, but very loosely,” Josie said.

Josie and her fellow TBFighters largely coordinate online and have written letters to congressional lawmakers, planned a “Fax Day” to send faxes to Danaher’s offices, released petitions, and posted and emailed calls-to-action regularly. Some members of the group were part of the successful effort to ask Johnson & Johnson not to seek secondary patents for generic versions of bedaquiline, a TB medication, in select low-income and middle-income countries. Danaher has also agreed to reduce the costs of their kits, though TBFighters says that Danaher still has not been transparent about their profit margin. The group’s next event is planned for April 8-9 in Washington, D.C. Members have scheduled in-person meetings with their representatives on The Hill.

Green recognized TBFighters at the event, as well as survivors he met on tour and TB nonprofits, saying that he “found hope … in togetherness.”

He may have gained fame for his history lectures on the Crash Course YouTube channel, but Green believes the present day is just as much a part of history as the past. Past progress in healthcare, he emphasized, “wasn’t natural or inevitable.” Instead, it was driven by people.

“[We don’t] live at the end of history,” Green told the crowd. “We live in the middle of history. … We are ourselves historical forces.”

Additional reporting done by Sara Gelrud.