John Green embraces the label of a “life-long learner” — from European history, young adult novels and, now, tuberculosis.
Since starting his YouTube channel in 2007, Green has committed years to the pursuit of education and fostering curiosity in young minds.
“I see that as the thing my brother [Hank Green] and I were put on the Earth to do — to pursue our own curiosities and inspire curiosity in other people,” Green told The Daily Cardinal in an interview.
This belief was not something Green was born with, but rather he fostered with age.
“When I [was younger], I thought of school as a series of hurdles I had to jump over in order to receive a piece of paper that said I could be an adult. I didn't know why the hurdles were there, and I didn't feel like I was empowered to ask why the hurdles were there,” he said. “But then eventually I discovered that learning is the most interesting thing we get to do as humans.”
In addition to being a “New York Times” best-selling author, Green has co-hosted “vlogbrothers” and “Crash Course” with his brother on YouTube for 18 and 14 years respectively, becoming a familiar face in classrooms across the country. In recent years, he’s turned his passion to global health equity, becoming synonymous with the fight against tuberculosis, which he calls “the ultimate disease of injustice” and is the subject of his upcoming book “Everything is Tuberculosis.”
Before discussing his recent endeavors, it’s important to properly contextualize Green’s long-standing impact on education. “Crash Course” started as a passion project by the Green brothers, becoming more “rigorous” since its debut in 2011, working with experts to cover subjects from science to social studies. But its goal has stayed the same: to provide free, enjoyable education for anyone curious enough to click play.
“We were trying to make the argument that learning is or should be pleasurable and that you should enjoy being able to understand the world around you more deeply,” Green said. “But sometimes the joy of that is kind of sucked out of the experience by textbooks, multiple choice tests, SATs — it’s a little soul crushing. And so, how do we bring back some joy in learning, is the question we're always asking ourselves.”
Beyond the joy of learning, Green is concerned about the joy of future generations, specifically in relation to the current political and health climate, something Green “didn’t experience when [he] was a kid.”
“I feel really bad for [your generation] because you lived through COVID, which has been — I don't want to use past tense — just a tremendous shock to the social order. And now you've lived a lot of your lives with a level of political instability in the United States,” he said.
“I really feel like we failed you,” Green said. “And I’m sorry.”
But if Green can do one thing, it’s remain steadfast amid the existential dread that would exhaust a normal person. His work speaks for itself, and his character speaks even louder.
When members of the Cardinal thanked him for his vital role in helping them pass their history exams, Green simply said, “I think you did that [yourself], but I’m happy to take a little credit.”
That sentiment embodies the character of Green — an online personality who not only cares about his subscriber count, but the wellbeing and education of his followers (and even his haters). Green’s educational pursuits don’t just concern students passing their exams either, but exploring all aspects of the human experience.
In his upcoming book “Everything is Tuberculosis,” Green explores the ongoing impact of a disease that kills 1.25 million people per year despite being entirely curable. Green said a lack of funding, as well as the Donald Trump administration’s freeze on funding for foreign aid, inhibit efforts to mitigate the impact of the disease.
“People are dying of tuberculosis today who don't need to die, and that is a direct result of the choices made by the new administration. It's heartbreaking,” he said.
Halting current treatment efforts puts the world at greater risk in the future, Green added.
“When you interrupt someone's treatment to cure tuberculosis, that dramatically increases the chance that they're going to have drug resistance, and that becomes harder to cure,” he said. “It also means that drug resistant [tuberculosis] is spreading throughout a community, which is extremely dangerous, not just to that community, but to the whole world.”
Green said his continued fight for access to life-saving treatments across the globe is motivated by a strong commitment to fight global health inequality. He became focused on tuberculosis specifically after meeting a 17-year-old boy named Henry struggling with the disease, who Green said reminded him of his own son, Henry.
In the face of looming threats to health care access, Green reminds himself that progress is still possible.
“In the time that I've been an adult, I've seen a 50% reduction in child mortality globally. That's incredible. That's one of the greatest achievements in human history,” said Green. “It happened slowly, but it wasn't inevitable, and it isn't inevitable that we'll continue to see progress. What inspires me is that millions of people work together to bend that curve.”
In a time of uncertainty for many, Green said he too struggles to find hope but reflects on past efforts of collaboration and innovation which have resulted in tangible change.
“I don't know what choices we're going to make right now. I feel discouraged, to be honest with you,” said Green. “But what makes me hopeful is knowing that people in the past have shown an ability to work together to make the world better for the most vulnerable people among us, and that tells me that it's possible.”
Amid the heaviness that comes with researching a centuries-old, deadly disease, Green stays connected to the one thing that binds us all: Taylor Swift.
“I was very heavily into my ‘Reputation’ era over the last year, very clap-backy,” he said. “I'm in a ‘Folklore’ era right now. Reflective, maybe, like a smidge of a midlife crisis, not the worst one you can have. That's the vibe for me right now.”
Rebekah Irby is an arts editor for The Daily Cardinal.
Bryna Goeking is an arts editor for The Daily Cardinal. She also reports on campus news. Follow her on Twitter @BrynaGoeking.
