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How Panda Express Is Tuberculosis

2026-03-24 · list · John · 5:23 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health (also: History & curiosities, Books & writing, Pop culture) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: timely hook, self promotion, civic or action cta, community lore

On World TB Day and the first anniversary of Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Hank how unlikely things are partly tuberculosis: The Fault in Our Stars, farm and wild animals, Mendeleev, My Chemical Romance, Taylor Swift's Lake District poets, the French Revolution and Panda Express.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — World TB Day and the book's anniversary; The Fault in Our Stars, the romanticization of illness and The Hectic Glow

  • ★★★ John says tuberculosis has been curable since the 1950s but still kills over a million people a year because of failures of human-built systems. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ Today is World TB Day and the first anniversary of the publication of Everything Is Tuberculosis; to celebrate, John talks about things that are at least partly tuberculosis. — 00:00:00 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says The Fault in Our Stars is tuberculosis: he knew little about TB's contemporary problem when writing it, but was very interested in how 19th-century TB relates to cancer today. — 00:00:00 · The Fault in Our Stars, tuberculosis, cancer
  • ★★ John was thinking about the romanticization of illness and how early-19th-century TB, striking people of any age and feeling capricious, resembles how we think about cancer today. — 00:00:29 · tuberculosis, cancer, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ Hazel's favorite band in the novel, The Hectic Glow, takes its name from a line in Thoreau's journals calling disease and decay beautiful, like the hectic glow of consumption. — 00:00:29 · Hazel Grace Lancaster, The Fault in Our Stars

00:00:58 — Animals get tuberculosis; bovine TB from raw milk, bone TB and Pott disease

  • ★★ John says mountain goats, pigs, sharks, cows and many more animals can get tuberculosis. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says bovine TB, usually caught by humans from raw cow milk, was a leading cause of death and disability among US children until the 1930s and remains a significant problem worldwide. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says bovine TB often attacks the bones rather than the lungs, causing intense pain; one form, Pott disease, affects the spinal column. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Mendeleev's family deaths and his own recovery from TB

  • ★ John says the fictional Hunchback of Notre Dame had Pott disease. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says Mendeleev's mother and sister died of TB; he caught it young and went to the seaside to recover, a popular but not very effective strategy, and he did recover. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says some people recover from tuberculosis on their own without antibiotic treatment, and we don't know exactly why. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis

00:01:56 — My Chemical Romance, Irvine Welsh, thalidomide and leprosy as tuberculosis

  • ★ John says that because Mendeleev survived he grew up to invent the periodic table, though invent may not be the right word. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says the band My Chemical Romance got its name from Irvine Welsh's book Three Tales of Chemical Romance. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says thalidomide, widely prescribed in the 1950s for morning sickness and anxiety, turned out to cause severe birth defects; Welsh's story is about a thalidomide survivor. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says thalidomide is still occasionally used today, though not in pregnant women, including to treat tuberculosis of the brain. — 00:02:31 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says thalidomide also treats leprosy, which like TB is caused by a mycobacterium; the two are closely related diseases despite very different courses and symptoms. — 00:02:31 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John hints that he wrote a whole book chapter on the relationship between leprosy and tuberculosis but later deleted it. (playful) — 00:02:31 · tuberculosis, Everything Is Tuberculosis

00:03:00 — Taylor Swift and the poets who went to the Lake District to die of TB

  • ★★ Linking a Taylor Swift song about poets going to the lakes to die, John says poets went to the Lake District to recover their health and were dying of tuberculosis. — 00:03:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says tuberculosis was then killing around one out of every three people in London. — 00:03:00 · tuberculosis, London

00:03:29 — The French Revolution: the death of the dauphin Louis Joseph from tuberculosis in 1789

  • ★★ John says TB is airborne and anyone can get it; today it is seen as a disease of poverty, but in the 18th century as anyone's disease, which is partly why it was romanticized. — 00:03:29 · tuberculosis, the social order
  • ★★ John says little Louis Joseph, son of Marie Antoinette and the king, heir apparent to the French throne and one of the world's richest kids, got tuberculosis as a little boy. — 00:03:29
  • ★★★ John says Louis Joseph died as the Estates General met, 40 days before the storming of the Bastille; his devastated parents left Versailles to grieve when they were badly needed there to preserve the monarchy. — 00:03:58
  • ★★★ Admitting it is a tiny bit tenuous, John argues that much had to happen for the French Revolution to go as it did, and at least one of those things is tuberculosis. — 00:03:58 · tuberculosis

00:04:27 — Panda Express founder Peggy's research and algorithmic TB diagnosis

  • ★★ John says Panda Express was founded by married couple Peggy and Andrew Cherng; Peggy has a PhD in computer science and researched algorithmically identifying congenital heart problems. — 00:04:27
  • ★★ John says somewhat similar technology using pattern recognition and algorithms to identify lung problems is now used to diagnose tuberculosis. — 00:04:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John concludes that the world is weird and everything is tuberculosis. (playful) — 00:04:27 · tuberculosis

00:05:02 — Livestream on Lesotho TB fundraising, thanks for the book's first year, next Tuesday's big announcement

  • ★★ John invites viewers to his livestream at 3 p.m. Eastern, linked in the doobly-doo, to discuss the community's fundraising to fight TB in Lesotho. — 00:05:02 · Nerdfighteria, doobly-doo
  • ★★ John thanks viewers for giving Everything Is Tuberculosis an incredible first year and is grateful for how the book has been received. — 00:05:02 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says viewers will see him next Tuesday (31 March 2026) for a big announcement. — 00:05:02

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The title and description present the video as John explaining how the French Revolution, Panda Express, My Chemical Romance and mountain goats are all tuberculosis. (playful) — video description · tuberculosis
  • ★★ The description asks viewers to check out TB Fighters at tbfighters.org this World TB Day and join the movement. — video description
  • ★★ In a comment John says Dr Pepper inventor Charles Alderton was a pharmacist when TB killed more Americans than cancer and heart disease combined, so he would have sold many mostly ineffective consumption treatments. — creator comment · tuberculosis
  • ★ Answering a viewer who asked him not to ruin their favorite takeout place, John says in a comment that Panda Express is even better now. (playful) — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • John asks whether the band My Chemical Romance is tuberculosis. — 00:01:56

    “But of course!”

  • John says one could write a whole book chapter on the relationship between leprosy and tuberculosis. — 00:02:31

    “and in fact, one did, but then later deleted it.”

  • After quoting a Taylor Swift line about poets going to the lakes to die, John asks the obvious question. — 00:03:00

    “Why do you think they were going to the Lake District and what do you think they were dying of?”

  • After tying Panda Express's founder's PhD research to TB diagnosis, John sums up. — 00:04:27

    “Hank, the world is weird, and everything is tuberculosis.”

  • John says Mendeleev grew up to invent the periodic table. — 00:01:56

    “Well, I don't know if invent is the right word.”

  • John teases next Tuesday's announcement. — 00:05:02

    “for a capital B, big capital A announcement”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Everything Is Tuberculosis · French Revolution · Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France · Panda Express · tuberculosis

Also: People: Andrew Cherng · Dmitri Mendeleev · Henry David Thoreau · Louis XVI · Marie Antoinette · Peggy Cherng · Taylor Swift

Works: Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance · Journal of Henry David Thoreau · The Fault in Our Stars · The Lakes

Groups: My Chemical Romance

Terms: doobly-doo · the social order

Concepts: Antibiotic · bovine tuberculosis · cancer · Cattle · Computer-aided diagnosis · Congenital heart defect · leprosy · Mountain goat · Periodic table · Pig · Pott disease · raw milk · shark · social determinants of health · Thalidomide

Places: Lake District · Lesotho · London · Palace of Versailles

Events: Estates General of 1789 · Storming of the Bastille · World Tuberculosis Day

Characters: Hazel Grace Lancaster · Quasimodo · The Hectic Glow

Only in the description or credits: Charles Alderton · Dr Pepper · Irvine Welsh · TBFighters

Also centred on French Revolution: God and Grain: The French Revolution, Part I · Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II · REIGN OF TERROR: The French Revolution, Part III

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