John Green on fighting diseases of injustice
ReThinking
TED
4.7 • 626 Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You may know John Green as the best-selling author of The Fault In Our Stars or the co-creator of the popular YouTube education channel Crash Course. In this episode, John joins Adam for a live conversation at the Authors@Wharton series to discuss his book Everything is Tuberculosis and his mission to fight diseases of injustice. The two also explore strategies for finding motivation and creativity, address John’s banned books, explain how writing is like playing Marco Polo, and uncover John’s favorite Hank Green invention.
Follow
Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: adamgrant.net/)
Guest: John Green (Instagram: @johngreenwritesbooks | TikTok: @literallyjohngreen | Website: johngreenbooks.com/)
Links
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Subscribe to TED
Instagram: @ted
YouTube: @TED
TikTok: @tedtoks
LinkedIn: @ted-conferences
Website: ted.com
Podcasts: ted.com/podcasts
ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.
For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Sean has had some good ideas over the years. |
| 0:05.0 | But using Canva was a really good one. |
| 0:08.0 | Sean designed some social posts to promote his friend's car boot sale. |
| 0:13.0 | They looked good. |
| 0:15.0 | Really, really good. |
| 0:17.0 | Next thing he knows, someone came and bought the lot, including the car. |
| 0:24.3 | Now Sean doesn't know how he's going to get home. |
| 0:28.1 | Thanks, Canva. |
| 0:29.8 | If you're struggling to keep up with all the latest innovations in tech and what they'll mean for your life, |
| 0:34.7 | TED Tech has you covered. |
| 0:36.2 | Get ahead of the curve with digestible downloads |
| 0:38.6 | on some of the biggest ideas in technology, from AI and virtual reality to clean tech. Find Ted Tech |
| 0:45.1 | wherever you get your podcasts. When I got out of college, I thought there were like three jobs, doctor, lawyer, and other. |
| 0:58.3 | And I knew I was going to be an other. |
| 1:02.6 | Hey, everyone, it's Adam Grant. |
| 1:04.6 | Welcome back to Rethinking, my podcast with Ted on the Science of What Makes Us Tick. |
| 1:09.2 | I'm an organizational psychologist, and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people |
| 1:13.4 | to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking. |
| 1:20.5 | John Green sees what's possible, more than what seems impossible. |
| 1:24.7 | John is one of my favorite writers, thinkers, and humans. |
| 1:28.8 | You might know him as the co-creator of the wildly popular education series, Crash Course, or the co-host of Vlog |
| 1:33.7 | Brothers with his brother Hank, or the best-selling author of beloved books like The Fault in Our |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.