Following nearly destroying our world, our relatives have become allies’: a thrilling podcast featuring John F. Kennedy & Khrushchev’s relatives.

During October 1962, humanity came nearer toward ruin than at any other point in recent history. This happened after an American surveillance plane identified that Russian atomic missile installations were being assembled in Cuba, less than 100 miles off the coast of the US mainland. In response, President John F Kennedy ordered a naval task force to impose a naval quarantine around Cuba. What followed constituted almost two weeks filled with unbearable stress.

The Unthinkable Danger

The peril remained clear. If President Kennedy, or else the Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, initiated an attack against the other side, a cascade involving worldwide nuclear strikes and counterstrikes might have ensued, plunging humanity toward all-out ruination.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered extensively, through books, films, and TV documentaries. However, for its third season, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents a novel perspective to the story. The series is co-presented by Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, family members belonging to the men who, over two tense weeks, held the destiny of humanity in their hands.

"What was the Kremlin considering? What was the United States considering?" ponders Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s descendant and an academic of global relations.

For her, the strength of the show is its attempt to explore: "Why do people hate one another to the point they go against each other?"

"It was not lost on me how profound it is that humans can be friends or else have the potential to be total enemies," remarks Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of JFK and now an author and lawyer. "History shows this over and over in instances where countries have gone to war, highlighting the profound irrationality involved to fight."

The Precipice of Catastrophe

What is remarkable about this event is that, since it unfolded so publicly, citizens globally were able to observe almost as it happened while it edged towards armageddon. Even so, the danger of destruction came closer than what most people realised.

"Virtually everyone in the White House were advocating for a military strike followed by an invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "If we had attacked the Cubans using the naval blockade, there is no question Soviet forces stationed there would've launched a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, which would've obliterated our aircraft carriers and destroyed America's primary fleet. And, the U.S. would have responded through an overwhelming counterattack which would have eradicated most life on Earth."

The reality it didn’t highlights the composure of both leaders, they managed to keep their heads while engaging in diplomacy at a time when everyone in their governments was pushing for military action. Consequently, Khrushchev removed the missiles in Cuba while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed American similar weapons from Turkey. The sense of relief was worldwide, as was a feeling of hope.

The Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, during those two weeks in October, the fear was felt by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born in the years following these events, and Nina learned about the crisis through the USSR's education system, which presented an alternative version of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, describing it as a scary day," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, people really didn’t know a great deal about it, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system we were told that things are constantly wonderful or positive."

Within Khrushchev’s family, though, it was different. "They told me what a great moment for the USSR, as it was a direct confrontation. They were able to find a solution, and avoided a global war, which was a positive outcome," she adds. Later on, however, that perspective would not be held by everybody. "For a long time in Russian politics, it was considered a setback for the Soviet leader, because he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Collaboration

The Bomb is so balanced and expertly crafted so much so that Nina quips she nearly forgot she already knew outcome. This is, partly, due to contributions from historians. Yet, really, the most significant thing remains the involvement of the descendants. Not so long ago, it was unthinkable that descendants of the heads of state of America and Soviet Union would appear together publicly. That these two individuals are able to do so, and be so warm with each other, must be seen as a symbol of hope.

"We are not the first," notes Nina. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son and became great friends with the former president's family."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," adds Max. "Which is unfortunate because we got along really well and now we’re friends, something that is really great. Finally, after almost six decades of almost destroying the world, our families are now allies, suggesting the world is safer, somewhat."

Modern Parallels and Current Perils

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason The Bomb seems so urgent is that we once again find ourselves living through a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe in its history, in part because today's statesmen appear not to be able to grasp