‘After almost destroying the planet, our relatives have become friends’: a thrilling podcast from JFK and Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, the planet veered nearer to annihilation than at any other point in recent history. This happened after an American surveillance plane found that Soviet nuclear missile bases were being assembled in the island of Cuba, a mere 100 miles off the coast of the United States. In response, President John F Kennedy directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to enact a maritime blockade around the island. The next phase was almost two weeks of impossible stress.

An Unthinkable Threat

The peril remained palpable. If Kennedy, or else his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire on the other side, a chain reaction of global nuclear attacks followed by counterstrikes would have followed, casting mankind into all-out destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been examined repeatedly, through volumes, movies, as well as TV documentaries. But, for its third season, a prominent audio documentary series titled "The Bomb" presents a completely new perspective into the story. The series is jointly hosted by Kennedy's relative alongside Nina Khrushcheva, family members belonging to the leaders that, over 13 days, grasped the fate of the world in their hands.

"What were the Russians considering? What were the United States planning?" questions Nina Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s descendant who is also an academic of international affairs.

For her, the strength of the show lies in its attempt to objectively ask: "How can individuals detest one another and confront one another?"

"It struck me how spectacular the fact that people have the potential to be friends or can become total enemies," remarks Kennedy, the son of RFK, nephew of JFK and currently a writer and lawyer. "We see this dynamic repeatedly in instances where nations have gone to war, and it just illustrates how unbelievably stupid it is to fight."

The Precipice Towards Disaster

What’s remarkable regarding the Cuban missile crisis was that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, people around the world were able to observe almost as it happened while it moved towards disaster. Nonetheless, the threat of destruction was more imminent than what anybody realised.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors wanted an airstrike and an invasion," explains Max Kennedy. "If we had struck Cuba with the naval blockade, it is certain Soviet forces on the ground would've deployed a nuclear warhead at the American ships, which would've sunk our naval vessels and sunk our primary fleet. In turn, we would have responded with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended all life on the planet."

The reality this did not occur stands as credit to Kennedy and Khrushchev, who managed to exercise restraint and calmly negotiate at a time when hawkish elements in their governments were advocating action. As a result, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the missiles in Cuba and President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew his missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was palpable, matched by the sense of hope.

The Divergent Perspective

Still, during those two weeks in October, the fear was palpable by everyone. The podcast's presenters came into the world in the years following these events, and Khrushcheva learned about the crisis through the Soviet education system, which presented a slightly different narrative of events.

"You said your father remembers it, describing it as a frightening day," she says. "But in the Soviet Union, the public were largely unaware that much about it, since it was a crisis, whereas in the Soviet Union we were told that everything was always fine and positive."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, the perspective was different. "I was informed what a great moment for the USSR, as it was eyeball to eyeball. They were able to resolve it, thus avoided a global war, seen as a wonderful thing," she continues. Subsequently, however, that perspective would not be shared by everybody. "For a long time in Russian politics, it was considered a defeat for the Soviet leader, because he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Partnership

This podcast is remarkably balanced , expertly crafted that Khrushcheva quips she nearly forgot the known the ending. This is, in part, thanks to the participation of historians. Yet, really, the most significant thing is the involvement of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it would be unthinkable that descendants of the heads of state of America and the USSR would appear together publicly. The fact that these two individuals are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a sign of hope.

"Max and I aren't the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Max. "That is unfortunate since we connected immediately and we are friends, which is really great. Finally, after almost six decades of almost destroying the planet, our families are now allies, so I think the world is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Parallels and Current Dangers

Is that truly the case? One reason the reason this series seems so urgent is because we now find ourselves in dark times. The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight in its history, partly since today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to grasp