‘After nearly destroying the world, our relatives are friends’: the gripping podcast featuring John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, the world came closer toward ruin than at any other point during the contemporary era. This occurred following the discovery that an American reconnaissance aircraft found the fact that Russian nuclear missile installations were being built on the island of Cuba, less than 100 miles from American soil. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK ordered a naval task force to impose a naval quarantine around the island. What followed constituted almost 14 days filled with extreme tension.

The Catastrophic Danger

The danger was palpable. Should Kennedy, or else his Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, were to fire on the other side, a chain reaction of global atomic strikes and retaliatory strikes would have ensued, plunging mankind toward all-out destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been documented endlessly, through volumes, movies, as well as TV documentaries. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb introduces an unprecedented perspective into the story. It is co-presented by Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the men who, over two tense weeks, grasped the destiny of the planet in their hands.

"What were the Soviet side considering? What was Washington planning?" ponders Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter and an academic specializing in global relations.

For her, the beauty of the podcast lies in its attempt to objectively ask: "Why do people hate one another and go against one another?"

"It was not lost on me how remarkable it is that people can be friends or can become complete enemies," adds Kennedy, son of RFK, nephew of the late president and now an author as well as lawyer. "We see this over and over when countries have gone to war, demonstrating the profound irrationality it is to engage in warfare."

The Precipice of Disaster

What is remarkable regarding the Cuban missile crisis is that, because it unfolded in the global spotlight, citizens globally could watch almost in real time as it crept towards catastrophe. Nonetheless, the danger of destruction came closer than what most people understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone in the White House wanted a military strike and an invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had attacked the Cubans using the naval blockade, it is certain Soviet forces on the ground would have deployed a tactical nuclear weapon at the US Sixth Fleet, and that would have obliterated our naval vessels as well as sunk our primary fleet. And, we would have responded with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended most life on Earth."

The fact this did not occur highlights the composure of both leaders, who succeeded in exercise restraint and calmly negotiate when everyone around them demanded action. Consequently, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles in Cuba while Kennedy (although not reported at the time) removed American similar weapons from Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, matched by the sense of hope.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Still, for those two weeks of October 1962, the fear was felt by everyone. The podcast's presenters were born in the years following the crisis, with Khrushcheva learned about it through the Soviet education system, which painted an alternative narrative of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, describing it as a scary day," she says. "However in the Soviet Union, the public really didn’t know that much regarding the crisis, since it was a tense situation, and under the Soviet system we were told that everything was always wonderful or sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, however, the perspective was distinct. "I was informed what a great moment for the USSR, as it represented eyeball to eyeball. They were able to find a solution, thus avoided a global war, which was a wonderful thing," she continues. Later on, though, that perspective would not be held by all Russians. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, the crisis was viewed as a setback for the Soviet leader, simply he didn’t blow up America."

An Unlikely Partnership

The Bomb is so even-handed and well produced that Nina jokes she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This effect is, partly, due to the participation of historians. But, truly, the most momentous aspect remains the participation of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it would be inconceivable that relatives of the leaders of America and the Soviet Union to appear side by side. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a sign of progress.

"Max and I aren't the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he became great friends with the former president's family."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," adds Kennedy. "That is unfortunate since we got along really well and now we’re friends, which is really great. Ultimately, after almost six decades since almost destroying the planet, our families are now friends, so I think the world is more secure, a little bit."

Modern Echoes and Current Perils

Is that truly the case? One reason why this series seems so urgent is because we now are living in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to midnight in its history, partly since today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to learn