Best-selling author and influencer John Green will be speaking at Oakland University on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. in the Founders Ballrooms at the Oakland Center. With excitement only growing alongside the anticipation of the event, now is the best time for a reminder of who Green is and what he stands for.
Green has written a number of bestselling novels over the years, with the first one, titled “Looking for “Alaska” (2005), winning the Printz Award in 2006. He has been given many honors since, including the 2009 Edgar Allen Poe Award for “Paper Towns” (2008) and Children’s Choice in 2013 for “The Fault in Our Stars” (2012.)
“The Fault in Our Stars” took the world by storm in 2014 with its film adaptation and kicked off a slew of additional films featuring his other various novels. A total of five movie adaptations and one series have been developed over the years, the most recent one being “Turtles All the Way Down” in 2024.
In recent years, Green has shifted his focus to writing non-fiction books focused on humanity and the way it has shaped the planet. “The Anthropocene Reviewed” explores the current geological age in a series of essays spanning the human experience and how human activity has affected the Earth’s biodiversity.
His latest book, “Everything is Tuberculosis,” Green talks about his friendship with Henry Reider, a boy from Sierra Leone who miraculously recovered from drug-resistant tuberculosis. Green tells Reider’s story alongside the history of this widespread disease and the current trajectory on research and funding toward more effective cures.
Tuberculosis is treatable and curable, yet it remains one of the deadliest diseases in America with 1.25 million deaths worldwide in 2023 alone. “Everything is Tuberculosis” is a call to action and a must-read for anyone who cares about the health of humans across the globe.
Green’s shift to a more educational writing style did not spring out of nowhere. Alongside his brother, he has been a virtual educator for over a decade at this point in time. In 2011, the pair created a team to produce fun and accessible videos online that explain myriad educational topics from science, history and English literature and more.
Look back to grade-school for that one class everyone struggled with because the teacher simply couldn’t articulate the topic in a way that made sense. The obvious solution for the last 13 years has been to turn on YouTube and watch a Crash Course video on the topic. John and Hank Green became as notorious as Bill Nye on the playground for serving some of the finest education for young brains with short attention spans.
The channel has since grown beyond the Green brothers, featuring more hosts in a broadly successful reach to cover more topics in the fun, attention-grabbing way they are known for. The channel now boasts over 16 million subscribers.
While John Green no longer hosts Crash Course videos often, he records a podcast titled “The Universe” through the channel alongside astrophysicist Dr. Katie Mack. The podcast series explores the history of the universe and ponders its future.
Green now boasts the title of host for three podcasts and has been a guest on more than 50 additional series. Alongside “The Universe,” he hosts “Dear Hank and John” with his brother.
The lecture being held on campus this week will further detail Green’s illustrious career directly from the source and answer community-submitted questions. To learn more about the event, find information online through Oakland University or the Student Life Lecture Board.
