‘After almost destroying the planet, the relatives are friends’: a gripping podcast featuring JFK & Khrushchev’s descendants.

In the month of October 1962, humanity veered closer toward ruin than at any other point during recent history. This happened following the discovery that a US surveillance aircraft found the fact that Soviet nuclear missile sites were being assembled on the island of Cuba, less than 160 kilometers off the coast of American soil. In response, President JFK ordered the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to enact a naval quarantine around the island. What followed was nearly 14 days of extreme anxiety.

An Catastrophic Threat

The danger was palpable. Should President Kennedy, or else his Soviet counterpart, Premier Khrushchev, had fired on the other side, a chain reaction of global atomic attacks and retaliatory strikes could have followed, thrusting mankind toward all-out ruination.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered endlessly, in volumes, movies, and TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents a novel element to the story. The series is jointly hosted by Kennedy's relative alongside Khrushchev's descendant, relatives of the leaders that, for two tense weeks, held the fate of the planet in their hands.

"What were the Soviet side planning? What was the American side considering?" asks Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter who is also a professor specializing in global relations.

For her, the beauty of the show is its attempt to objectively ask: "How can individuals detest each other to the point they confront one another?"

"I am acutely aware how profound it is that people have the potential to be friends or can become complete adversaries," adds Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of the late president and currently an author and attorney. "History shows this dynamic repeatedly in instances where countries have gone to war, highlighting the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

A Brink of Disaster

What is notable about this event is that, because it transpired so publicly, citizens globally were able to observe almost as it happened as it edged towards disaster. Even so, the threat of annihilation came closer than what most people realised.

"The overwhelming majority in the White House were advocating for an airstrike followed by a ground invasion," says Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. attacked Cuba with the naval blockade, there is no question the Russians on the ground would've deployed a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, and that would've destroyed our aircraft carriers as well as sunk America's largest and most important naval force. And, the U.S. would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended most life on Earth."

The reality it didn’t is a testament to both leaders, who succeeded in keep their heads while calmly negotiate when many advisors around them demanded action. As a result, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the missiles from the Caribbean island and Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed American similar weapons based in NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, as was a feeling of hope.

The Divergent Perspective

Still, during those 13 days of October 1962, the tension was felt globally. The podcast's co-hosts came into the world in the years following these events, with Nina being taught about the crisis via the USSR's education system, which portrayed an alternative version of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father remembers it, and it was a scary time," Khrushcheva notes. "But in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know that much about it, because it was a crisis, and in the Soviet Union the official line was that everything was constantly wonderful or positive."

Inside the Khrushchev household, however, it was distinct. "They told me what a great occasion for the USSR, as it was eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to find a solution, thus didn’t start a global war, which was a positive outcome," she continues. Later on, though, that view would not be held by everybody. "For decades in Russian politics, it was considered a failure for Khrushchev, because he didn’t blow up the United States."

An Unprecedented Partnership

The Bomb is remarkably even-handed , well produced that Nina quips she nearly forgot the known outcome. This is, in part, due to the participation of historians. Yet, really, the most significant thing remains the participation of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable for relatives of the heads of state of the United States and USSR to appear side by side. That these two individuals are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth with each other, must be seen as a symbol of progress.

"Max and I are not the pioneers," smiles Khrushcheva. "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 had never met before the podcast," clarifies Max. "That is a shame since we got along immediately and we’re friends, something that is wonderful. Ultimately, following nearly 60 years of nearly annihilating the world, our families have become friends, suggesting global relations is safer, a little bit."

Modern Parallels with Current Dangers

Or is it? One reason the reason this series feels so necessary is that we now find ourselves in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom is closer to catastrophe in its history, in part because world leaders appear not to be able to learn