157. The Deadliest Disease in Human History

John Green returns to the show to talk about tuberculosis — a disease that kills more than a million people a year. Steve has an idea for a new way to get treatment to those in need.

• SOURCES: • John Green (johngreenbooks.com), best-selling author and YouTube creator.

• RESOURCES: • Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (amazon.com/Everything-Tuberculosis-Signed-Pers…), by John Green (2025).
• "The Deadliest Infectious Disease Isn’t a Science Problem. It’s a Money Problem (washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/21/tubercu…)," by John Green (The Washington Post, 2024).
• "The Deadliest Infectious Disease of All Time (youtube.com/watch?v=7D-gxaie6UI)," by John Green (Crash Course, 2024).
• "Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Johnson & Johnson (nerdfighteria.info/v/tSC06P9A5W4)," by John Green (Vlogbrothers, 2023).
• "Designing Advance Market Commitments for New Vaccines (nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28168/w2…)," by Michael Kremer, Jonathan D. Levin, and Christopher M. Snyder (NBER, 2020).
• "Are CEOs Rewarded for Luck? The Ones Without Principals Are (scholar.harvard.edu/files/sendhil/files/are_ce…)," by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2001).
• "A Further Communication on a Remedy for Tuberculosis (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5150491)," by Robert Koch (The Indian Medical Gazette, 1891).

• EXTRAS: • "His Brilliant Videos Get Millions of Views. Why Don’t They Make Money? (freakonomics.com/podcast/his-brilliant-videos-…)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025).
• "Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time (Update) (freakonomics.com/podcast/update-sendhil-mullai…)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
• "John Green’s Reluctant Rocket Ship Ride (Update) (freakonomics.com/podcast/update-john-greens-re…)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
• "Rajiv Shah Never Wastes a Crisis (freakonomics.com/podcast/rajiv-shah-never-wast…)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
• "'There’s So Many Problems — Which Ones Can I Make a Difference On?' (freakonomics.com/podcast/theres-so-many-proble…)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
• The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (amazon.com/Anthropocene-Reviewed-Signed-John-G…), by John Green (2021).
• The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-anthropocene…) (podcast).
• Nerdfighteria (nerdfighteria.com).
• TBFighters (tbfighters.org).

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