Following almost destroying the world, our families have become friends’: a gripping audio series from JFK & Nikita Khrushchev’s relatives.

In the month of October 1962, the planet veered closer to ruin than at any other point during recent history. This happened after an American surveillance plane discovered that Russian nuclear missile installations were being assembled on Cuba, a mere 160 kilometers from the US mainland. In response, President JFK commanded the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet to enact a naval quarantine around the island. The ensuing period constituted nearly two weeks of extreme stress.

The Catastrophic Threat

The danger was palpable. Should President Kennedy, or his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, were to fire against the other side, a series involving global nuclear attacks followed by retaliatory strikes would have followed, thrusting civilization into total destruction.

The Cuban missile crisis has been documented repeatedly, through books, movies, as well as television programmes. However, in its latest installment, a prominent audio documentary series The Bomb has brought a novel perspective into the story. It is co-presented by Max Kennedy and Khrushchev's descendant, family members belonging to the leaders that, for 13 days, controlled the fate of the planet within their grasp.

"What were the Kremlin considering? What was the United States planning?" asks Khrushcheva, the Soviet leader's great-granddaughter and a professor specializing in global relations.

For her, the strength of the podcast is its endeavor to objectively ask: "How can individuals hate one another and go against one another?"

"It was not lost on me how profound the fact that humans have the potential to be allies or else have the potential to be total adversaries," remarks Max Kennedy, the son of RFK, nephew of JFK and now a writer and lawyer. "We see this dynamic over and over when nations have gone to war, highlighting the sheer folly it is to engage in warfare."

The Precipice of Disaster

What is remarkable about this event is that, since it transpired in the global spotlight, individuals globally were able to observe almost in real time as it crept towards disaster. Even so, the danger of destruction came closer than what anybody understood at the time.

"The overwhelming majority in the White House were advocating for a military strike followed by an invasion," notes Kennedy. "Had the U.S. attacked Cuba with the Sixth Fleet, undoubtedly Soviet forces on the ground would have deployed a nuclear warhead at the American ships, and that would've sunk the aircraft carriers as well as sunk our primary fleet. And, we would have responded through an overwhelming counterattack which would have ended most life on Earth."

The reality this did not occur highlights the composure of Kennedy and Khrushchev, they managed to keep their heads and calmly negotiate when many advisors around them demanded military action. Consequently, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the nuclear weapons from Cuba while President Kennedy (a fact not publicly disclosed then) removed American missiles from Turkey. The relief was immense, matched by a feeling of hope.

The Divergent Viewpoint

Yet, during those two weeks in October, the fear was felt globally. The podcast's co-hosts came into the world shortly after the crisis, with Nina learned about the crisis via the Soviet education system, which portrayed an alternative picture of events.

"As you mentioned your parent remembers it, and it was a frightening time," she says. "But for Soviet citizens, the public were largely unaware a great deal regarding the crisis, since it was a crisis, and in the Soviet Union the official line was that things are constantly wonderful and sunny."

Inside Khrushchev’s family, however, the perspective was different. "They told me what a great moment it was, as it represented a direct confrontation. They were able to find a solution, and didn’t start a global war, which was a wonderful outcome," she adds. Subsequently, however, that interpretation would not be held by all Russians. "For a long time within Russian historical analysis, the crisis was viewed as a failure for Khrushchev, simply he refrained from destroying America."

An Unprecedented Partnership

The Bomb is so balanced , well produced that Khrushcheva jokes it almost made her forget the known the ending. This is, in part, due to contributions from historians. Yet, really, the most groundbreaking aspect remains the participation of the hosts themselves. Not so long ago, it was unthinkable for descendants of the heads of state of America and the Soviet Union would appear together publicly. The fact that these two individuals can do that, and exhibit such warmth with each other, has to be a sign of hope.

"We aren't the first," notes Nina. "After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a relative Sergey Khrushchev’s son and formed a close bond with Dwight Eisenhower’s children."

"But we were strangers prior to this project," clarifies Max. "Which is a shame because we connected really well and we are friends, something that is really great. Finally, after almost 60 years of almost destroying the world, our lineages are now allies, suggesting global relations is safer, a little bit."

Contemporary Parallels and Present Perils

Is that truly the case? Part of the reason this series feels so necessary is that we once again find ourselves in dark times. The symbolic clock of doom stands nearer to midnight than ever before, in part because world leaders appear not to be able to grasp