‘After almost destroying our world, our relatives are allies’: the gripping podcast featuring JFK & Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In the month of October 1962, the planet veered closer to destruction than at any other point during recent history. This transpired after an American surveillance plane found the fact that Soviet atomic weapon sites were under construction in the island of Cuba, a mere 100 miles off the coast of the US mainland. In response, President JFK ordered the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a maritime quarantine encircling the island. The ensuing period was nearly two weeks of impossible tension.

The Unthinkable Danger

The threat remained clear. Should President Kennedy, or else the Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, had fired on their enemy, a cascade of worldwide atomic attacks and retaliatory strikes would have ensued, casting humanity into total ruination.

This pivotal 1962 event has been documented repeatedly, in volumes, movies, and TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, a prominent BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents an unprecedented dimension into this historical narrative. The series is co-presented by Max Kennedy alongside Nina Khrushcheva, family members of the leaders that, for 13 days, grasped the fate of humanity in their hands.

"What were the Soviet side thinking? What was the United States considering?" questions Nina Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant and a professor specializing in global relations.

For her, the unique appeal of the podcast is its attempt to question: "How can individuals hate one another to the point they oppose one another?"

"It struck me how remarkable the fact that individuals have the potential to be allies or else have the potential to be complete adversaries," remarks Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of the late president and currently a writer as well as lawyer. "We see this repeatedly in instances where nations enter into conflict, demonstrating the profound irrationality it is to engage in warfare."

A Brink of Disaster

What is notable about this event is that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, people worldwide were able to observe nearly in real time as it moved closer to armageddon. Even so, the risk of annihilation was more imminent than anybody realised.

"Virtually everyone in the White House wanted a military strike and an invasion," notes Kennedy. "If we had attacked Cuba with the naval blockade, it is certain Soviet forces stationed there would've deployed a nuclear warhead against the American ships, and that would have destroyed our aircraft carriers as well as sunk America's largest and most important naval force. In turn, we would have responded through an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended most life on the planet."

The reality this did not occur is a testament to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to keep their heads and engaging in diplomacy at a time when hawkish elements around them were advocating military action. As a result, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles in Cuba and President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed American missiles from NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, matched by the sense of hope.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, for those two weeks in October, the tension was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s co-hosts were born in the years following these events, and Nina being taught about the crisis through the USSR's education system, which painted an alternative picture of events.

"You said your father recalls it, describing it as a scary time," she says. "However for Soviet citizens, the public really didn’t know that much regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system the official line was that things are always fine or sunny."

Inside Khrushchev’s family, however, the perspective was different. "I was informed what a great occasion for the USSR, as it represented a direct confrontation. The leaders managed to resolve it, and didn’t start the war, seen as a wonderful outcome," she adds. Later on, though, that view was not shared by everybody. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a defeat for the Soviet leader, simply he didn’t blow up the United States."

A Unlikely Partnership

This podcast is remarkably even-handed , expertly crafted so much so that Khrushcheva jokes she nearly forgot she already knew the ending. This is, in part, due to contributions from renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most groundbreaking thing is the involvement of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it was unthinkable that relatives of the leaders of the United States and Soviet Union would appear together publicly. 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 hope.

"We are not the pioneers," smiles Nina. "Following 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," adds Max. "That is a shame because we connected immediately and now we are friends, which is really great. Ultimately, following almost 60 years of almost destroying the planet, our lineages have become allies, suggesting the world is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Parallels and Present Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of why this series feels so necessary is because we now find ourselves in dark times. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to catastrophe in its history, in part because today's statesmen appear not to have the capacity to comprehend