My New Book: Everything Is Tuberculosis

2024-10-22 · announcement · John · 4:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Global development) · mode: Announcements · tags: self promotion, heavy topic

John announces his new nonfiction book, Everything Is Tuberculosis (out March 18), explaining how a 2019 visit to a Sierra Leone TB hospital made him obsessed with a curable disease that still kills over a million people a year; he shows the cover, says he is signing 100,000 pre-ordered copies, and hopes the book helps make TB history.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting, release date and pre-orders; the book is not a young adult novel

• ★★★ John announces his new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, comes out March 18, is available for pre-order now, and he will show its cover. — 00:00:03 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★ John says the book is not a young adult novel like The Fault in Our Stars or Turtles All the Way Down; it is not the opposite of his previous work, but it is different. — 00:00:10 · Everything Is Tuberculosis, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down
• ★★ John says five years ago he didn't know tuberculosis was still a thing; he thought of it as a disease of 19th-century Romantic poets, not a present-tense phenomenon. — 00:00:22 · tuberculosis

00:00:29 — How John became obsessed with tuberculosis: the 2019 Sierra Leone visit, a curable disease that still kills over a million a year

• ★★★ John says in 2019 he visited a tuberculosis hospital in Sierra Leone, met a boy who shared his son's name, and came home obsessed with tuberculosis. — 00:00:33 · Sierra Leone, Henry Green, tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says TB remains the world's deadliest infectious disease, a distinction it has held for most of human history. — 00:00:45 · tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says tuberculosis has been curable since the 1950s, yet over a million people die every year of a disease we know how to prevent and cure, which he calls insane. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis, health equity
• ★★★ John says the book is a science story of how TB came to be understood and cured, and a human story of why the cure has been so badly distributed, centred on one boy surviving drug-resistant TB. — 00:01:21 · Everything Is Tuberculosis, tuberculosis

00:01:27 — What the book is: a science story and a human story; how writing to remember became the book; TB shaped geography and history

• ★★ John says he began writing about TB because writing is how he thinks and he wanted to remember what survivors and experts taught him; eventually he set aside the novel he'd been working on. — 00:01:40 · tuberculosis
• ★★ John says TB shaped our geography, giving us towns like Colorado Springs and Asheville, North Carolina, and profoundly shaped our history. — 00:02:05 · tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says we in turn have shaped TB, because the disease follows the trails of injustice that we blazed for it. — 00:02:15 · tuberculosis, health equity

00:02:26 — The cover, signing 100,000 copies, signed pre-orders, the audiobook and livestreamed signing sessions

• ★★ John says the book is a significant departure in his writing but like his other books: a story of hope and grit in an unjust world, of why we go on and how we carry each other through, or don't. — 00:02:26 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★ John shows the cover and says he loves it; he has been lucky with covers but maybe never this lucky. — 00:02:40 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says the boxes behind him are because he is signing 100,000 copies of Everything Is Tuberculosis. — 00:02:50 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says viewers can pre-order a signed copy via the link below or at everythingistb.com. — 00:02:55 · Everything Is Tuberculosis, doobly-doo
• ★ John admits he said after last time he would never again sign hundreds of thousands of books, but says he is signing only 100,000. (playful) — 00:03:00
• ★★ John says an audiobook narrated by him is available for pre-order; it is unsigned only because he hasn't figured out how to sign digitally. (playful) — 00:03:10 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★ John says he has been livestreaming signing sessions on John's Channel and invites viewers to hang out with him in a low-stress way, link below. — 00:03:20 · doobly-doo

00:03:37 — Twenty years after Looking for Alaska, becoming a nonfiction writer, hopes for the book; sign-off

• ★★ John says the book comes out just after the 20th anniversary of Looking for Alaska; told then he'd write nonfiction about TB, he'd first have been glad to still be writing, then surprised. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:03:37 · Looking for Alaska (novel), Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says between a quarter and a third of all living humans have been infected with tuberculosis. — 00:03:52 · tuberculosis
• ★★ John says he never imagined himself a nonfiction writer, but this was one of the most joyful and heartbreaking writing experiences of his life because it is a true story. — 00:03:59 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★★ John says it is a short book but hopes it can matter in readers' lives and accelerate the movement to make tuberculosis history. (hedged) — 00:04:06 · Everything Is Tuberculosis, tuberculosis

In the description and comments

• ★★ The description calls the book John's seventh, an exploration of the history and presence of our deadliest infectious disease. — video description · Everything Is Tuberculosis

Threads in this video

• announced · Everything Is Tuberculosis: John's nonfiction book about tuberculosis (2024) — John announces his new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, out March 18 and available for pre-order now. (00:00:03)
• retold · John and Henry Reider, a Sierra Leonean teenager with multidrug-resistant TB he met at Lakka hospital (2019) — John says in 2019 he visited a tuberculosis hospital in Sierra Leone, met a boy who shared his son's name, and came home obsessed with tuberculosis. (00:00:33)
• kept late · John: make a large-ish tuberculosis announcement within a week to 10 days, explaining his signing of 100,000 sheets (2024) — John makes his tuberculosis announcement, his new book, explaining that the boxes behind him are because he is signing 100,000 copies of it. (00:02:50)
• promised · John: sign 100,000 copies of Everything Is Tuberculosis (2024) — John says he is signing 100,000 copies of Everything Is Tuberculosis for pre-orders. (00:02:50)
• restate · Is it acceptable that how long people live depends on where they live? — John says tuberculosis has been curable since the 1950s, yet over a million people die every year of a disease we know how to prevent and cure, which he calls insane. (00:00:58)
• recalled · John: he will never again sign his name 250,000 times (2021) — John admits he said after last time he would never again sign hundreds of thousands of books, but says he is signing only 100,000. (00:03:00)
• retold · John reads widely about tuberculosis and 19th-century illness (2022) — John says he began writing about TB because writing is how he thinks and he wanted to remember what survivors and experts taught him; eventually he set aside the novel he'd been working on. (00:01:40)
• asked · John asks viewers to pre-order and buy signed copies of Everything Is Tuberculosis (2024) — John says viewers can pre-order a signed copy via the link below or at everythingistb.com. (00:02:55)

Where the stories that moved here went next

• John asks viewers to pre-order and buy signed copies of Everything Is Tuberculosis (2024) — promotion (not a request); last: thanks, 2026-03-24
• John: sign 100,000 copies of Everything Is Tuberculosis (2024) — kept; last: recalled, 2026-03-31
• John: make a large-ish tuberculosis announcement within a week to 10 days, explaining his signing of 100,000 sheets (2024) — kept late
• Everything Is Tuberculosis: John's nonfiction book about tuberculosis (2024) — completed; last: looked back, 2026-10-20

Mentioned

Central: Everything Is Tuberculosis · tuberculosis

Also: People: Henry Green · Henry Reider

Projects: John's Channel

Works: Looking for Alaska (novel) · The Fault in Our Stars · Turtles All the Way Down

Organizations: Lakka TB Hospital

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: audiobook · health equity · infectious disease · multidrug-resistant tuberculosis · young adult literature

Places: Asheville, North Carolina · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Sierra Leone

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