Following almost annihilating the world, our families have become friends’: a thrilling podcast featuring JFK and Nikita Khrushchev’s descendants.

In October 1962, the planet veered closer to destruction than at any other point in the contemporary era. This occurred after an American reconnaissance aircraft found the fact that Russian nuclear weapon sites were under construction in Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers off the coast of the US mainland. Reacting to this, President John F Kennedy directed the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to impose a maritime blockade encircling Cuba. What followed was nearly 14 days of extreme anxiety.

The Catastrophic Danger

The threat was clear. If President Kennedy, or his Russian opposite, Nikita Khrushchev, initiated an attack against the other side, a series of global nuclear attacks followed by retaliatory strikes could have followed, thrusting mankind toward all-out oblivion.

The Cuban missile crisis has been covered endlessly, through volumes, movies, as well as TV documentaries. However, in its latest installment, a prominent audio documentary series titled "The Bomb" has brought an unprecedented element to this historical narrative. It is co-presented by Kennedy's relative alongside Nina Khrushcheva, family members belonging to the men who, for two tense weeks, held the fate of the world within their grasp.

"What was the Kremlin thinking? What were Washington thinking?" asks Khrushcheva, Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter who is also an academic specializing in international affairs.

For her, the beauty of the podcast is its attempt to objectively ask: "How can nations detest each other to the point they go against each other?"

"It was not lost on me how remarkable the fact that individuals can be friends or else have the potential to be complete adversaries," adds Max Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, related to JFK and currently an author and attorney. "We see this repeatedly when nations have gone to war, demonstrating how unbelievably stupid involved to engage in warfare."

A Brink Towards Catastrophe

What is striking regarding this event is that, because it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals worldwide were able to observe almost in real time while it moved closer to disaster. Even so, the danger of destruction was more imminent than anybody understood at the time.

"Virtually everyone among Kennedy's advisors were advocating for a military strike and an invasion," notes Max Kennedy. "Had the U.S. struck Cuba with the Sixth Fleet, it is certain the Russians stationed there would have deployed a tactical nuclear weapon at the American ships, and that would've obliterated the naval vessels as well as destroyed America's largest and most important naval force. And, we would have retaliated through an overwhelming counterattack that would have eradicated most life on the planet."

The fact this did not occur stands as credit to both leaders, who managed to remain calm and calmly negotiate at a time when hawkish elements in their governments were advocating military action. As a result, The Soviet premier agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons in the Caribbean island while Kennedy (although not reported then) withdrew American missiles from NATO ally Turkey. The relief was worldwide, matched by a feeling of hope.

A Divergent Viewpoint

Still, for those two weeks in October, the tension was palpable by everyone. The Bomb’s presenters came into the world in the years following the crisis, with Khrushcheva learned about the crisis via the Soviet education system, which presented an alternative narrative of what happened.

"You said your father recalls it, describing it as a frightening time," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, people really didn’t know a great deal about it, because it was a crisis, and in the Soviet Union the official line was that everything was always fine 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 find a solution, and didn’t start a global war, which was a positive outcome," she adds. Later on, though, that perspective was not held by all Russians. "For decades within Russian historical analysis, it was considered a failure for Khrushchev, simply he refrained from destroying America."

A Unprecedented Collaboration

This podcast is so even-handed , well produced so much so that Nina jokes she nearly forgot she already knew outcome. This is, in part, due to contributions from historians. Yet, truly, the most momentous thing is the participation of the hosts themselves. Even within living memory, it would be unthinkable for relatives of the leaders of the United States and the USSR would appear side by side. The fact that Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva are able to do so, and exhibit such warmth toward one another, must be seen as a symbol of progress.

"Max and I aren't the pioneers," notes Khrushcheva. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative moved to America and became great friends with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"However we were strangers prior to this project," adds Kennedy. "That is unfortunate because we connected really well and we are friends, something that is really great. Ultimately, after nearly six decades of nearly annihilating the planet, our lineages have become allies, suggesting global relations is safer, somewhat."

Modern Echoes with Present Perils

Or is it? One reason the reason this series seems so urgent is because we now are living living through dark times. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to catastrophe in its history, in part because world leaders don’t seem to be able to comprehend