‘After nearly annihilating our world, our relatives are friends’: the gripping podcast from JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

During the month of October 1962, the world edged nearer toward annihilation than at any other point in the contemporary era. This happened following the discovery that a US surveillance aircraft found the fact that Russian atomic missile bases were under construction on the island of Cuba, less than 100 miles from American soil. Reacting to this, President John F Kennedy ordered the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to establish a naval quarantine around Cuba. What followed constituted nearly 14 days of impossible anxiety.

An Unthinkable Danger

The danger was obvious. If Kennedy, or his Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, had fired on their enemy, a cascade of worldwide atomic strikes and counterstrikes could have followed, thrusting humanity into all-out oblivion.

The October crisis has been examined extensively, in books, films, as well as television programmes. But, in its latest installment, the BBC World Service podcast The Bomb presents an unprecedented element into this historical narrative. It is jointly hosted by Kennedy's relative and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives belonging to the men that, for two tense weeks, controlled the fate of the planet within their grasp.

"What was the Russians thinking? What were the American side planning?" asks Nina Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant who is also an academic specializing in global relations.

For her, the unique appeal of the podcast is its endeavor to objectively ask: "How can individuals detest each other to the point they confront each other?"

"It struck me how profound it is that humans can be allies or else have the potential to be complete adversaries," adds Max Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of the late president and currently an author as well as attorney. "We see this repeatedly when nations have gone to war, highlighting the profound irrationality it is to fight."

A Brink Towards Catastrophe

What’s remarkable regarding the Cuban missile crisis was that, because it unfolded so publicly, people around the world were able to observe nearly as it happened as it moved towards disaster. Nonetheless, the threat of destruction was more imminent than anybody understood at the time.

"Almost all officials in the White House were advocating for an airstrike followed by an invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had attacked the Cubans with the naval blockade, there is no question the Russians on the ground would've launched a tactical nuclear weapon against the US Sixth Fleet, and that would have destroyed our naval vessels and sunk our primary naval force. In turn, we would have responded with an overwhelming counterattack which would have ended all life on Earth."

The fact it didn’t is a testament to both leaders, who managed to keep their heads and engaging in diplomacy when many advisors around them was pushing for military action. As a result, Khrushchev removed the nuclear weapons from the Caribbean island and President Kennedy (although not reported at the time) withdrew his missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The sense of relief was immense, as was the sense of optimism.

The Different Perspective

Still, for those 13 days in October, the tension was felt by everyone. The podcast's presenters were born shortly after these events, with Khrushcheva being taught about it through the USSR's school curriculum, which portrayed a slightly different version of what happened.

"As you mentioned your father recalls it, and it was a scary time," Khrushcheva notes. "However in the Soviet Union, the public really didn’t know that much about it, because it was a tense situation, whereas under the Soviet system we were told that everything was always fine and sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, the perspective was different. "I was informed that it was a triumphant occasion it was, because it was eyeball to eyeball. The leaders managed to resolve it, thus avoided the war, seen as a wonderful thing," she adds. Subsequently, though, that view was not shared by all Russians. "For a long time in Russian politics, it was considered a setback for the Soviet leader, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Partnership

The Bomb is remarkably balanced , expertly crafted so much so that Nina quips she nearly forgot the known outcome. This is, partly, thanks to contributions from renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most groundbreaking thing remains the involvement of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it was unthinkable that relatives of the heads of state of America and the USSR to appear together publicly. That Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and be so warm with each other, has to be a symbol of progress.

"We aren't the first," notes Khrushcheva. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, my uncle moved to America and formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we had never met prior to this project," clarifies Kennedy. "That is unfortunate because we connected really well and now we are friends, which is really great. Finally, after almost six decades since nearly annihilating the world, our families are now friends, so I think the world is more secure, a little bit."

Contemporary Parallels and Current Dangers

Or is it? One reason why The Bomb seems so urgent is because we now are living living through dark times. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to midnight than ever before, in part because world leaders don’t seem to have the capacity to comprehend