Kennedy and Khrushchev: 9. Black Saturday

Kennedy and Khrushchev: 9. Black Saturday

Author: BBC World Service January 26, 2026 Duration: 40:13

Soviet anti-aircraft fire takes down an American spy plane over Cuba, as the crisis spirals. The pilot is killed. With nuclear missiles almost ready for launch in Cuba, how can the two superpower leaders pull back from the brink of war? This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.


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