Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,05 Jan 2026,37 mins

SeriesKennedy and Khrushchev

7. Eyeball to eyeball

The Bomb

Available for over a year

President Kennedy sends shockwaves around the world with a televised speech to the nation. He imposes a blockade on all ships bound for Cuba - Premier Khrushchev brands it “an act of piracy”. But he knows that hidden in a tiny Cuban port, there’s a Soviet ship laden with unimaginable destructive power. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Programme Website
More episodes