‘After nearly destroying our planet, our relatives are friends’: the gripping audio series from JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In October 1962, humanity came closer to destruction than at any other point in the contemporary era. This transpired when an American surveillance aircraft discovered the fact that Soviet atomic missile bases were under construction in the island of Cuba, a mere 100 miles from the US mainland. In response, President JFK directed a naval task force to establish a naval quarantine around the island. What followed constituted nearly 14 days filled with extreme stress.

The Unthinkable Danger

The danger remained palpable. If Kennedy, or else the Soviet counterpart, Premier Khrushchev, initiated an attack on their enemy, a cascade of worldwide nuclear attacks and counterstrikes might have ensued, plunging civilization toward all-out oblivion.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered extensively, in books, films, as well as TV documentaries. But, for its third season, the audio documentary series titled "The Bomb" has brought a novel perspective into this historical narrative. It is co-presented featuring Max Kennedy alongside Nina Khrushcheva, relatives belonging to the men that, for two tense weeks, held the fate of the planet within their grasp.

"What were the Kremlin considering? What were Washington thinking?" asks Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter who is also a professor specializing in global relations.

For her, the unique appeal of the podcast is its attempt to explore: "How can nations hate each other to the point they go against each other?"

"It struck me how remarkable it is that people have the potential to be allies or can become total adversaries," remarks Max Kennedy, son of RFK, nephew of JFK and now an author and attorney. "We see this repeatedly when nations have gone to war, highlighting the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

A Brink of Catastrophe

What is striking about the Cuban missile crisis was that, since it unfolded so publicly, citizens worldwide could watch almost in real time while it moved towards disaster. Nonetheless, the danger of annihilation came closer than what anybody realised.

"Almost all officials among Kennedy's advisors wanted a military strike and a ground invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. struck the Cubans with the Sixth Fleet, undoubtedly Soviet forces stationed there would have fired a tactical nuclear weapon against the US Sixth Fleet, which would have destroyed the aircraft carriers and sunk our largest and most important naval force. In turn, the U.S. would have retaliated through an overwhelming counterattack that would have eradicated most life on the planet."

The reality it didn’t is a testament to both leaders, who managed to exercise restraint and calmly negotiate at a time when many advisors in their governments demanded action. Consequently, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons in Cuba while President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed his similar weapons from Turkey. The sense of relief was immense, as was the sense of optimism.

The Different Perspective

Still, for those two weeks in October, the anxiety was felt by everyone. The podcast's co-hosts came into the world in the years following the crisis, with Khrushcheva being taught about it via the USSR's education system, which portrayed an alternative version of events.

"As you mentioned your parent remembers it, and it was a scary day," she says. "However in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know a great deal regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system the official line was that things are always wonderful or positive."

Inside the Khrushchev household, however, it was different. "I was informed that it was a triumphant moment for the USSR, as it represented a direct confrontation. The leaders managed to find a solution, and didn’t start the war, which was a positive outcome," she adds. In the years to come, though, that view would not be held by all Russians. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a defeat for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Collaboration

The Bomb is remarkably balanced , well produced so much so that Khrushcheva jokes it almost made her forget the known outcome. This effect is, in part, due to contributions from renowned scholars. But, really, the most significant thing remains the involvement of the descendants. Even within living memory, it was inconceivable for relatives of the heads of state of America and Soviet Union to appear together publicly. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, has to be a sign of optimism.

"Max and I aren't the first," notes Khrushcheva. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative moved to America and formed a close bond with the former president's family."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," adds Max. "Which is a shame since we connected immediately and we are friends, something that is really great. Ultimately, following almost six decades of nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages are now friends, suggesting global relations is safer, somewhat."

Contemporary Echoes with Current Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of why The Bomb seems so urgent is because we once again are living living through dark times. The Doomsday Clock is closer to catastrophe than ever before, in part because world leaders appear not to have the capacity to grasp