John Green was the first guest on the very first Interview Show — four years ago, in February 2008. He’d already published his first, award-winning novel, Looking for Alaska. And since then, it’s been a joy to watch him accomplish more of what he set out to do: write smart, thoughtful young adult novels about love, death, friendship, loneliness — without any vampires.

In the process, John has helped thousands of teenagers fall in love with books. And he’s also done something I don’t know he set out to do, and that’s inspire a whole community (called “Nerdfighters”) who now share a lot more — including their own jargon — than John’s novels. 

But the release of a new John Green novel is still the main event. (The day his new book, The Fault in Our Stars, went up on Amazon for pre-order, it shot to number one.) With The Fault in Our Stars out Jan. 10, John visited the show again (on Jan. 6) to talk the book, passing through the red-light district in Amsterdam on the way to the library, and a whole lot more.

(Note: There may be some audio NSFW. Just listen with headphones!)