Following nearly annihilating our planet, our families have become friends’: a gripping podcast from JFK & Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

During October 1962, humanity came closer toward destruction than at any other point in modern times. This happened following the discovery that an American reconnaissance aircraft found that Soviet nuclear missile sites were being built in Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from the US mainland. In response, U.S. President JFK commanded a naval task force to enact a maritime quarantine around Cuba. What followed was nearly two weeks of extreme anxiety.

An Unthinkable Threat

The danger remained palpable. If President Kennedy, or else the Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire on the other side, a chain reaction of global nuclear attacks and counterstrikes might have followed, casting humanity into total oblivion.

This pivotal 1962 event has been covered endlessly, through books, movies, as well as television programmes. But, for its third season, a prominent BBC World Service podcast The Bomb has brought a novel perspective into the story. The series is co-presented by Kennedy's relative and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives belonging to the men who, for two tense weeks, controlled the destiny of the world in their hands.

"What was the Russians considering? What were Washington thinking?" ponders Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter and an academic of international affairs.

For her, the beauty of the podcast lies in its endeavor to explore: "Why do individuals detest one another and confront each other?"

"It struck me how profound it is that individuals have the potential to be friends or have the potential to be total enemies," adds Max Kennedy, the son of RFK, related to JFK and currently an author as well as attorney. "We see this over and over when countries have gone to war, and it just illustrates the sheer folly it is to fight."

A Precipice of Disaster

What’s remarkable regarding the Cuban missile crisis is that, because it transpired so publicly, citizens globally were able to observe nearly in real time while it edged towards catastrophe. However, the danger of annihilation was more imminent than what anybody understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone in the White House were advocating for an airstrike and a ground invasion," notes Kennedy. "Had the U.S. struck Cuba using the naval blockade, there is no question the Russians stationed there would've deployed a nuclear warhead at the American ships, which would've destroyed our aircraft carriers as well as sunk our largest and most important naval force. And, the U.S. would have responded with massive retaliation which would have ended most life on the planet."

The reality it didn’t highlights the composure of both leaders, who managed to keep their heads while engaging in diplomacy at a time when hawkish elements around them were advocating action. Consequently, The Soviet premier removed the nuclear weapons in Cuba while Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed at the time) removed American missiles from NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, as was the sense of hope.

A Different Viewpoint

Yet, for those two weeks in October, the fear was palpable globally. The Bomb’s presenters were born in the years following the crisis, with Nina being taught about the crisis via the USSR's education system, which presented an alternative narrative of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father remembers it, and it was a frightening day," Khrushcheva notes. "However in the Soviet Union, the public really didn’t know a great deal regarding the crisis, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system we were told that things are constantly fine and positive."

Within the Khrushchev household, though, it was different. "I was informed that it was a triumphant occasion for the USSR, because it was eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to find a solution, and avoided a global war, seen as a positive outcome," she continues. Subsequently, though, that interpretation would not be shared by everybody. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a defeat for the Soviet leader, because he didn’t blow up America."

An Unprecedented Collaboration

The Bomb is so even-handed , well produced that Khrushcheva quips she nearly forgot the known the ending. This is, in part, due to the participation of historians. Yet, really, the most significant thing is the participation of the descendants. Even within living memory, it would be inconceivable for descendants of the leaders of America and the USSR to appear together publicly. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and be so warm toward one another, has to be a symbol of hope.

"Max and I are not the first," smiles Nina. "Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative moved to America and became great friends with the former president's family."

"However we were strangers before the podcast," adds Kennedy. "Which is unfortunate because we got along immediately and now we’re friends, which is wonderful. Finally, following nearly six decades of almost destroying the planet, our lineages have become allies, suggesting the world is more secure, somewhat."

Contemporary Echoes and Current Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of the reason this series feels so necessary is because we now are living in a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to midnight than ever before, in part because today's statesmen don’t seem to have the capacity to comprehend