Author John Green Stops By the Wharton School to Talk about Life, Creativity and Compassion

What’s your favorite novel by author and YouTuber John Green? Looking for Alaska? Turtles All the Way Down? An Abundance of Katherines? Or maybe The Fault in Our Stars, one of the best-selling books ever? Green’s books, with more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, often feature young adult characters and explore themes like love, loss and identity.

His latest non-fiction work, Everything Is Tuberculosis, focuses on the world’s deadliest disease, which has existed for millennia without a cure because, Green believes, “We simply have systems that don’t value all human lives equally.”

It was the jumping-off point for Green’s intimate conversation in March 2025 with Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an organizational psychologist who hosts the Authors@Wharton series.

Grant praised Green’s latest work as “beautifully written” and said that he felt “a tremendous amount of moral outrage reading this book, because it seems wrong that over a million people are going to die from this disease and we know exactly what we can do to save them, and it’s not happening.”

Beyond Books

More than an exploration of stellar writing, Grant’s Authors@Wharton conversation with Green was a celebration of life — weaving together themes of collaboration, activism, perseverance in the face of adversity, and following your passion.

Said Green: “We are incredibly rare and precious, and every single one of us is amazing, worthy of all of the care in the world, and deserving of loving and being understood. The point of life is to be here with each other in true solidarity and trying to ease each other’s journeys.”

Here are some powerful themes and John Greenisms that emerged from the conversation, which took place in the Penn Museum:

1. Mental health and self-acceptance. John Green’s candid discussion about living with OCD and depression showed that success is possible while managing mental health challenges. “I’ve lived with very serious illness for most of my adult life, and yet I also have a really wonderful life. And those things aren’t mutually exclusive at all. Obviously, you have to treat your chronic illness like a chronic illness, and there are times when it’s disabling and debilitating, and that’s very frustrating. And I wish that I could have the kind of wildly productive life that always seems to me just out of reach. But I have a really wonderful life and I have a serious mental illness. They’re both true at the same time.”
2. Valuing creativity from within. Green’s advice to “just start” and be willing to be bad at something new was a reminder to pursue your passion without fear of perfection. “You have to find value in making the thing. That’s true whether it’s creative work or a marketing campaign, because you have to find a little bit of the intrinsic value in doing the work. Otherwise, you become entirely reliant upon exterior feedback and validation. If you’re only looking for external validation, my experience is it will never be enough. There will always be a hole inside of you that all the validation in the world simply cannot fill. That has to come from within. You have to find meaning in the making of the thing, not just meaning in the way the thing is received.”
3. Social justice and systemic change. Green’s deep research into tuberculosis and global health inequities for his book has fueled his activism in the face of injustices. “My brother had cancer, and it cost about 150 times more to cure my brother’s cancer than it cost to cure Henry’s tuberculosis [the main character in his latest book]. At no point did anyone say to my brother, ‘I’m just not sure this is cost-effective. We have a better use of resources.’ They offered him the kind of personalized, tailored treatment that all of us would expect and that all of us deserve. I think about that a lot in the context of tuberculosis survivors, because it’s a similarly hard disease to cure… but it’s very curable. And the short answer to why we don’t cure it is that we simply have systems that don’t value all human lives equally.”
4. Sometimes careers are built on unexpected opportunities. Green pivoted often in his career, from student chaplain to novelist, to blogger, to YouTube educator, to non-fiction writer, to activist.  His non-linear path shows that there’s no single “right” way to build a career – and he also believes in the power of creativity. “I think just starting something is the hardest thing. Just start and be bad… Regular people engage in all kinds of creative work, and they do it in all sorts of different ways. They may not do it as their entire living. It may be a side hustle, it may be a passion project, it may be something that you choose not to monetize, but regular people do creative work in all sorts of ways. And if there’s one thing that you take from listening to me, I hope that it’s if that doofus can do it, why can’t I?”
5. Shared projects (with siblings!) can enrich your life. Success does not have to be a solitary pursuit; in fact, Green encourages collaboration — which, in his case, has often involved his brother, Hank Green. In 2012, the two began producing educational video content with the YouTube channels Crash Course and SciShow and have continued their partnership. “Make stuff together. You don’t have to make it for anybody else…Do a carpentry project together. When you visit each other, do a jigsaw puzzle together…My brother is my closest collaborator. He is my oldest friend. He is one of the dearest people in my life. That is such a blessing, and it is so rare. In adulthood, it’s very difficult to remain close to your siblings… Hank is the most amazing person I’ve ever known. I really am the tail to Hank Green’s comet. That’s been my role ever since we started working together, because he’s so relentless. He has so much more energy than I do, and being the tail to his comet is a great privilege.”

Conversation Starters

Are you a John Green fan? Which of his books is your favorite? Did you learn something new in this interview about the author? What surprised you and why?

John Green believes that we have health care systems worldwide that “don’t value all human lives equally.” What does he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree? How might you confront this issue?

John Green encourages all of us to “make stuff together.” Do you collaborate creatively and entrepreneurially with someone who is close to you — a parent, friend or sibling? Share your story in the comment section of this article.

Hero image photo shot by: Larissa Inex, Pexels.com