Following almost annihilating the planet, our families are allies’: the thrilling audio series from John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In the month of October 1962, humanity veered closer to destruction than at any other point during recent history. This transpired when a US surveillance plane discovered that Russian atomic weapon sites were being assembled on the island of Cuba, a mere 100 miles off the coast of the United States. Reacting to this, U.S. President John F Kennedy directed a naval task force to enact a maritime blockade around Cuba. The ensuing period constituted almost a fortnight of impossible anxiety.

The Catastrophic Danger

The danger was clear. Should Kennedy, or else the Russian opposite, Premier Khrushchev, were to fire on their enemy, a chain reaction involving worldwide atomic strikes followed by counterstrikes might have ensued, plunging humanity into total oblivion.

This pivotal 1962 event has been covered repeatedly, through volumes, movies, as well as television programmes. However, for its third season, the audio documentary series The Bomb has brought a novel element to the story. It is jointly hosted featuring Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, family members of the leaders that, over two tense weeks, held the fate of the world within their grasp.

"What was the Russians planning? What was Washington planning?" ponders Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter and a professor of global relations.

For her, the unique appeal of the podcast is its endeavor to question: "Why do individuals hate one another and oppose each other?"

"It was not lost on me how spectacular it is that individuals have the potential to be allies or have the potential to be total adversaries," remarks Kennedy, the son of Robert Kennedy, nephew of the late president and now a writer and lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over in instances where countries enter into conflict, and it just illustrates how unbelievably stupid it is to fight."

The Precipice of Catastrophe

What is striking regarding this event was that, since it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals worldwide were able to observe almost as it happened as it moved towards disaster. Nonetheless, the danger of annihilation came closer than what most people realised.

"The overwhelming majority among Kennedy's advisors were advocating for an airstrike followed by an invasion," says Kennedy. "If we had struck Cuba using the naval blockade, there is no question the Russians on the ground would have fired a nuclear warhead against the American ships, and that would've destroyed our aircraft carriers as well as sunk our primary fleet. And, the U.S. would have retaliated through an overwhelming counterattack which would have ended most life on Earth."

The fact this did not occur is a testament to Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to remain calm and engaging in diplomacy when many advisors around them demanded military action. Consequently, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons in the Caribbean island while President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) withdrew American missiles based in NATO ally Turkey. The relief was immense, matched by the sense of hope.

A Different Perspective

Still, during those 13 days in October, the fear was palpable globally. The podcast's presenters were born shortly after the crisis, with Nina being taught about the crisis via the USSR's education system, which portrayed an alternative narrative of what happened.

"You said your parent remembers it, and it was a scary time," Khrushcheva notes. "However for Soviet citizens, people really didn’t know a great deal about it, because it was a tense situation, and in the Soviet Union we were told that everything was constantly wonderful and sunny."

Inside the Khrushchev household, though, it was distinct. "They told me what a great moment it was, as it was eyeball to eyeball. They were able to resolve it, thus avoided a global war, seen as a wonderful outcome," she continues. Subsequently, however, that interpretation would not be shared by all Russians. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a defeat for Khrushchev, simply he didn’t blow up the United States."

A Unlikely Collaboration

The Bomb is so even-handed , well produced that Khrushcheva jokes it almost made her forget the known outcome. This is, partly, due to contributions from historians. But, really, the most significant aspect remains the participation of the descendants. Even within living memory, it would be unthinkable that relatives of the heads of state of America and the Soviet Union would appear side by side. That these two individuals are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth with each other, must be seen as a sign of progress.

"We aren't the first," notes Nina. "Following 1991, my uncle moved to America and became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers before the podcast," clarifies Max. "That is a shame since we got along really well and now we’re friends, which is wonderful. Finally, following almost six decades of almost destroying the planet, our lineages have become allies, suggesting the world is safer, a little bit."

Modern Echoes and Present Perils

Or is it? Part of the reason The Bomb seems so urgent is because we now are living in a perilous era. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to catastrophe in its history, in part because today's statesmen don’t seem to be able to grasp