‘After nearly annihilating the planet, the families have become friends’: the thrilling podcast from John F. Kennedy & Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In the month of October 1962, humanity veered nearer toward destruction than at any other point during the contemporary era. This occurred when an American surveillance plane found the fact that Soviet nuclear weapon sites were being built on Cuba, less than 100 miles off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President JFK ordered the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to impose a maritime blockade encircling Cuba. The next phase was nearly 14 days of impossible tension.

The Unthinkable Threat

The peril was obvious. Should President Kennedy, or the Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, had fired on their enemy, a series involving global atomic strikes and counterstrikes could have followed, plunging mankind into all-out destruction.

The October crisis has been documented extensively, in books, films, and television programmes. However, for its third season, a prominent BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents a novel element into the story. It is co-presented featuring Kennedy's relative and Khrushchev's descendant, relatives of the men who, over two tense weeks, controlled the destiny of humanity in their hands.

"What were the Russians thinking? What were the American side considering?" ponders Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant and an academic specializing in global relations.

For her, the unique appeal of the podcast is its endeavor to objectively ask: "Why do people detest each other and confront each other?"

"It struck me how profound the fact that humans have the potential to be friends or else have the potential to be complete enemies," remarks Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, related to JFK and now an author and lawyer. "We see this over and over in instances where nations have gone to war, highlighting the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

The Precipice Towards Catastrophe

What is striking regarding the Cuban missile crisis is that, because it transpired so publicly, citizens around the world could watch nearly as it happened as it edged closer to armageddon. However, the risk of annihilation was more imminent than what most people understood at the time.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors wanted an airstrike and a ground invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had struck the Cubans with the Sixth Fleet, it is certain Soviet forces stationed there would've launched a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, which would've sunk our aircraft carriers and destroyed America's primary naval force. And, the U.S. would have retaliated with massive retaliation which would have ended all life on Earth."

The reality it didn’t highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, who succeeded in exercise restraint and engaging in diplomacy when hawkish elements around them were advocating military action. Consequently, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew his similar weapons based in NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, as was a feeling of hope.

The Divergent Perspective

Yet, for those two weeks in October, the fear was felt by everyone. The podcast's presenters came into the world shortly after the crisis, and Nina learned about it via the Soviet school curriculum, which painted a slightly different picture of what happened.

"As you mentioned your parent recalls it, and it was a frightening time," Khrushcheva notes. "However in the Soviet Union, people really didn’t know that much regarding the crisis, since it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system the official line was that everything was always fine or sunny."

Within the Khrushchev household, however, the perspective was different. "They told me what a great occasion for the USSR, as it was eyeball to eyeball. They were able to find a solution, thus avoided the war, which was a positive thing," she adds. Later on, however, that view was not held by everybody. "For a long time in Russian politics, the crisis was viewed as a defeat for the Soviet leader, simply he didn’t blow up the United States."

A Unlikely Collaboration

The Bomb is remarkably balanced , well produced that Nina quips it almost made her forget the known the ending. This is, partly, due to contributions from renowned scholars. But, really, the most groundbreaking thing remains the involvement of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable that descendants of the heads of state of America and the USSR would appear together publicly. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and be so warm with each other, must be seen as a symbol of hope.

"We are not the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle moved to America and formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we had never met before the podcast," clarifies Max. "Which is a shame because we got along really well and now we are friends, which is really great. Finally, after nearly 60 years of nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages are now allies, so I think global relations is more secure, a little bit."

Modern Parallels with Present Dangers

Or is it? One reason the reason this series seems so urgent is that we now are living in a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to midnight in its history, in part because today's statesmen appear not to have the capacity to comprehend