Sweaty palms.

Poems.

S sweaty Palms.

Even for one of America's leading economists, a meeting in the Oval Office with the

president himself must be pretty scary. Mary.

The economist is called Alexander Sachs.

A month ago, Sachs got a call from a fellow European economist in the United States asking for a favor.

No stranger to the Oval Office and certainly no stranger to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Sachs is less confident than usual.

He's usually here to talk economics, but today he has another subject altogether to lay before the president.

But the president has other things on his mind.

Less than a fortnight ago, Germany invaded Poland.

A war with unthinkable destructive potential is underway in Europe.

Saxe reads from a report by a little-known immigrant Hungarian physicist by the name of Leo Salard, that, if they're honest, doesn't really make much sense to either of them. Roosevelt has other

things to do. Today's topic of neutrons and atoms and energy falls on deaf

ears. He ushers sacks along. It looks like nothing will come of this meeting.

But then something changes. As Sachs packs up his things and heads out of the door,

the president perhaps feeling he's been a little harsh on his old friend, invites him back for coffee the next morning.

There are some moments that at the time

seem totally inconsequential, but they go on to change the world.

This is one of those moments.

My name is Emily Strasser.

...