As the battle for health-care reform drags on interminably, the physician and New Yorker staff writer weighs in on cost control, courtesy of Seattle Arts & Lectures. His latest book, The Checklist Manifesto, persuasively argues that small, cheap things can often be huge cost-savers in modern medicine. By committing simple routines to paper, future complications and surgeries can be avoided. Better still, neither the insurance industry or big pharma stand to gain from the practice. Tickets and info: 621-2230 and lectures.org. BRIAN MILLLER

Mon., May 3, 7:30 p.m., 2010