Turtles All the Way Down

I'm Madeleine Brand.

You may know John Green as the author of hit young adult novels like The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down.

You may know him as the author of nonfiction about the scourge of tuberculosis.

You may know him as one half of the Vlog Brothers, an enormously popular YouTube channel that Green has run with his brother Hank for nearly 20 years.

If you're just joining us, I'm talking with the author John Green.

He's famous as a young adult novelist.

Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars are two of them.

But his new novel is his first about and for grownups.

Yeah.

I had a choice when I was publicizing my book Turtles All the Way Down, which is about a young woman with OCD, and I also have OCD, whether to talk about it, and I chose to talk about it, and there were real costs to that choice for me.

But there were also real gifts to it.

You know, a lot of people told me that it helped them feel less alone.

Green Skewers Fame in Ending, which is the title of a book.

When John Green began promoting his 2017 novel, Turtles All the Way Down, he made an irreversible decision.

He wasn't sure whether to talk about his lived experience with OCD, which inspired his teenage protagonist, Aza.

He decided he would.

Green has been in the public eye for two decades.

He has millions of subscribers across the YouTube channels he hosts with his brother Hank Green.

Many of his best-selling novels, such as The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, have been adapted for the screen.

He has written non-fiction, notably last year's bestseller, Everything is Tuberculosis, and he's one of the most influential authors of the 2010's young adult literary craze.

Green, which is also the book I finished.

John Green is the award-winning, number one best-selling author of books, including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, The Anthropocene Reviewed, and Everything is Tuberculosis.

With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educational channel Crash Course.

John's books have received many honors, including an Audi Award, an Edgar Award, the Michael L.

But I want to say it's the least plotty book of his.

Yeah.

The Turtles All the Way Down had a lot of plot.

There was a whole adventure going on, right? Paper Towns has a whole road trip going on, and The Fault in Our Stars has a quest

Paper Towns in 2008 made its film debut in 2015, while his new bestseller The Fault in Our Stars from 2012 became a box office hit in 2014.

Most recently, his 2017 novel Turtles All the Way Down arrived as a feature film adaptation in 2024.

I hope the book is a love letter to movies, but I also wanted to be honest about how difficult it is to make a work of art that in order to be commercially successful has to be loved by millions of people.

That's where the Hollywood machine comes in.

I have read everything he's written and I have really liked everything he has written.

I've talked recently about Turtles All the Way Down.

I think as I have compared, well, you'll hear me later, talk about Switzy by Emma Klein.

And how Turtles All the Way Down weirdly reminded me a bit of Switzy.

But recently we've all fallen in love, I think, with John Green's nonfiction and his deep dive into tuberculosis.

I think he got a lot of us through the pandemic with The Anthropocene Reviewed and his reflections on, you know, everyday life phenomena.

the girls and the guest, both of which are different from each other and both of which are very different from this.

This book, you are entirely in David's head.

Perfect.

I mean, the way in which it's most profoundly impacted my work is that I ended up writing a book about a young woman with OCD called Turtles All the Way Down.

There's people in my life that I'm close to that have OCD, and reading that book was the one big, like,

whoa,

sounds like somebody's at the door.

Our fourth Mars sibling today is a number one New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold over 60 million copies worldwide.

You know him as the author of The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, and Turtles All the Way Down.

He's now releasing his first novel in nine years, Hollywood Ending, with his brother Hank Green, who he also co-created the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers, the educational Crash Course series, and the online community nerd Fightaria.