‘After almost destroying the world, the families have become friends’: the gripping audio series from JFK & Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In October 1962, the planet came nearer toward ruin than at any other point in the contemporary era. This transpired after a US surveillance aircraft found the fact that Soviet atomic weapon sites were being built in Cuba, less than 100 miles off the coast of the United States. In response, U.S. President John F Kennedy commanded a naval task force to impose a maritime quarantine encircling the island. The next phase constituted nearly a fortnight of impossible anxiety.

The Catastrophic Danger

The peril was palpable. If President Kennedy, or else the Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, had fired on the other side, a series involving global nuclear attacks and retaliatory strikes might have ensued, casting mankind toward all-out oblivion.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered repeatedly, in volumes, films, as well as television programmes. However, in its latest installment, a prominent BBC World Service podcast The Bomb introduces a completely new perspective into the story. It is jointly hosted featuring Kennedy's relative and Khrushchev's descendant, family members of the men who, over two tense weeks, controlled the destiny of humanity within their grasp.

"What were the Russians considering? What were the American side planning?" asks Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's descendant who is also a professor specializing in global relations.

For her, the strength of the podcast is its attempt to question: "Why do people hate each other and oppose one another?"

"It was not lost on me how spectacular the fact that humans have the potential to be allies or else have the potential to be complete adversaries," remarks Kennedy, son of RFK, related to the late president and currently an author as well as attorney. "We see this dynamic over and over when countries enter into conflict, demonstrating the profound irrationality it is to engage in warfare."

A Precipice Towards Catastrophe

What is striking about the Cuban missile crisis was that, because it unfolded so publicly, citizens around the world could watch almost as it happened as it edged towards catastrophe. Nonetheless, the threat of annihilation was more imminent than anybody understood at the time.

"Almost all officials in the White House were advocating for a military strike followed by a ground invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had attacked the Cubans with the Sixth Fleet, it is certain Soviet forces stationed there would've deployed a nuclear warhead at the US Sixth Fleet, and that would've obliterated the aircraft carriers as well as sunk our largest and most important naval force. In turn, the U.S. would have retaliated with an overwhelming counterattack that would have ended all life on the planet."

The fact it didn’t highlights the composure of both leaders, they succeeded in exercise restraint and engaging in diplomacy when everyone in their governments was pushing for action. Consequently, The Soviet premier removed the missiles from the Caribbean island and President Kennedy (although not reported at the time) removed his missiles from Turkey. The relief was worldwide, as was a feeling of hope.

The Different Viewpoint

Still, for those two weeks of October 1962, the tension was felt by everyone. The podcast's co-hosts came into the world in the years following the crisis, and Khrushcheva learned about the crisis through the Soviet school curriculum, which painted a slightly different picture of events.

"As you mentioned your father remembers it, and it was a scary time," Khrushcheva notes. "But in the Soviet Union, people were largely unaware a great deal about it, because it was a crisis, whereas in the Soviet Union we were told that things are always fine or sunny."

Inside Khrushchev’s family, however, the perspective was different. "They told me that it was a triumphant occasion it was, because it was a direct confrontation. They were able to resolve it, thus didn’t start the war, which was a positive thing," she adds. In the years to come, however, that view would not be held by everybody. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, the crisis was viewed as a failure for the Soviet leader, because he didn’t blow up America."

A Unprecedented Collaboration

This podcast is so even-handed and well produced that Nina quips it almost made her forget she already knew outcome. This effect is, partly, thanks to contributions from renowned scholars. Yet, really, the most momentous aspect is the participation of the descendants. Not so long ago, it would be unthinkable that descendants of the heads of state of the United States and Soviet Union would appear side by side. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva can do that, and be so warm with each other, must be seen as a symbol of optimism.

"We aren't the first," notes Nina. "Following 1991, my uncle Sergey Khrushchev’s son where he became great friends with the former president's family."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Kennedy. "Which is a shame since we connected immediately and we’re friends, which is really great. Ultimately, following nearly 60 years since nearly annihilating the planet, our families are now allies, suggesting global relations is safer, somewhat."

Modern Echoes with Current Dangers

Is that truly the case? Part of why The Bomb feels so necessary is that we now are living living through a perilous era. The Doomsday Clock stands nearer to midnight than ever before, in part because world leaders don’t seem to have the capacity to learn