Ep. 226 — The Tuberculosis Episode

It’s super interesting, I promise. Did y’all know that Tuberculosis, aka TB, Consumption, King’s Evil, The White Plague (because of the pale skin), etc is still a major health risk world wide? Every year, about 1.25 million people die from TB, and it’s considered the world’s most infectious disease. We can cure TB, so why is it still such a threat? Thanks to author John Green, we are going to be talking about the moral crime of TB today.

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Episode Source List:
Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. John Green. Crash Course Books, 2025.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis

https://www.who.int/health-topics/tuberculosis#tab=tab_1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441916/ 

https://www.cdc.gov/tb/about/index.html 

https://www.cdc.gov/tb/about/inactive-tuberculosis.html 

https://www.cdc.gov/world-tb-day/history/index.html 

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/11301-tuberculosis 

https://www.paho.org/en/topics/tuberculosis 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tuberculosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351250 

https://ourworldindata.org/tuberculosis 

https://www.pih.org/article/what-is-tuberculosis 

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/03/1160826 

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/tuberculosis/who-report-shows-global-tuberculosis-cases-are-rising

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/tuberculosis-surge-possible-usaid-cuts-trump-who-rcna195190 

https://www.statnews.com/2019/03/24/india-should-heed-a-teenagers-historic-fight-for-lifesaving-tuberculosis-treatment/

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/01/19/510433479/a-teens-family-fought-to-get-her-a-restricted-tb-drug-and-won

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/11/patients-are-falling-through-the-cracks-drug-costs-hinder-indias-response-to-tb

https://harvardpublichealth.org/global-health/india-tb-efforts-are-floundering-thats-bad-news-for-the-world/ 

https://newengland.com/yankee/history/vampire-mercy-brown-rhode-island/ 

https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/15/harvard-tb-study-halted-sarah-fortune-trump-administration/ 

https://hsph.harvard.edu/research/fortune-lab/