Introducing The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Presenters Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the superpower leaders, explore their rise to power - one wealthy, smooth-talking and Harvard educated, the other a hardened Soviet war leader from a peasant family. As they prepare to meet for the first and only time as world leaders, the stakes could not be higher: they are fierce rivals in the race to build ever more devastating missiles. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nina Khrushcheva is the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Max Kennedy is the nephew of President John F Kennedy, and the son of Robert F Kennedy. To hear more episodes, search for The Bomb, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.9	Hi, I'm Max Kennedy, co-host of the bomb, Kennedy and Khrushchev. It's the story of the
0:12.1	Cuban missile crisis, when the world came terrifyingly close to nuclear war. But this isn't
0:18.1	just about the political history. It's personal, too.
0:21.7	I'm the nephew of President John F. Kennedy,
0:24.3	and my co-host is Nina Khrushcheva,
0:26.8	the great-granddaughter of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
0:30.6	You can listen to Episode 1 right here.
0:33.1	I hope you enjoy it.
0:39.3	Moscow's Kivsky Railway Station.
0:42.7	A crowd of thousands wave,
0:45.3	as Premier Nikita Khrushchev leaves on board a dark green steam train.
0:50.8	He's heading for Vienna.
0:53.1	It's a journey of more than a thousand miles.
0:56.0	In Kiev, his arms are filled with flowers.
1:02.0	In a sunny Prague, more clapping crowds.
1:06.0	As his train passes through the countryside of the communist world, he is waved on enthusiastically.
1:20.0	President John F. Kennedy soaks in a large gold-plated bath.
1:24.8	He's staying in the King's Chamber, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a 19th-century palace
1:30.0	overlooking the River Seine.
1:32.2	The deep steaming waters are easing his back pain, which is worse than ever.
1:37.3	He's been touring Paris all day in an open-topped French limousine.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.