Kennedy and Khrushchev: 5. The crisis: Day one

Kennedy and Khrushchev: 5. The crisis: Day one

Author: BBC World Service December 29, 2025 Duration: 37:17

Spy plane pictures reveal the Soviet missile build up to the Americans. Now they know what Khrushchev has really been up to.  How will a furious President Kennedy respond? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.


From the BBC World Service, The Bomb is a history podcast that traces the profound and permanent shadow cast by atomic weapons. It goes beyond the familiar mushroom cloud to explore the human dramas that defined the nuclear age: the physicists in secret laboratories racing for a breakthrough, the clandestine networks of spies trading in ultimate secrets, and the world leaders who held the power of annihilation in their hands. The narrative builds across seasons, culminating in a gripping third season that places you inside the most dangerous confrontation in history. With the world on the brink during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the story is told through a remarkable personal lens by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the two men at the heart of the standoff. This podcast meticulously details how fear, ideology, and fragile diplomacy shaped our global reality, asking whether catastrophe can be averted when the stakes are the highest imaginable. Each episode is a layered examination of the decisions, both monumental and minute, that brought us to the edge and defined the precarious balance of power for decades to come.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 32

The Bomb
Podcast Episodes
Leo Szilard: The prologue [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:57
“My grandfather in front of a mushroom cloud”. This is the story of why I wanted to know if the Bomb could have been stopped. Episode 1 available from 1 August. #thebomb