Before health care became the touchiest subject in America—before the mustachioed posters of President Obama and death panels—Washington Post’s longtime London bureau chief T.R. Reid was circling the globe looking for a fix to our health care system. The subsequent five-part PBS series, Sick Around the World, profiled both for-profit and public systems in England, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Canada—and gave Reid a solid foundation to write the bestselling book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care.

But what was the impetus? Why would one man, one journalist, want to tackle such a monster issue? And is there a solution out there? Find out more in the clip above, and tonight at 7:30 at Benaroya Hall when Reid discusses his findings in person. Tickets to this Seattle Arts and Lectures event are $15-$70; find out more here.