logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2025
37m 44s

Kennedy and Khrushchev: 1. Opening moves

Bbc World Service
About this episode

As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Hosts 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 couldn't 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.

Up next
Dec 2025
Kennedy and Khrushchev: 2. King of bombs
The Berlin Wall rises, splitting the city from east to west. Then a stand-off between American and Soviet tanks at the crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie, brings the two superpowers to the brink of military confrontation. And fearing that they are falling far behind in the missil ... Show More
38m 23s
Dec 2025
Kennedy and Khrushchev: 3. Gamble
The Soviets secretly plan to move an arsenal of nuclear weapons to Cuba. It is an audacious move by Nikita Khrushchev, to protect Fidel Castro’s communist regime from an American invasion. Since Castro and the Soviet leader met in a New York hotel in 1960, they’ve had a personal ... Show More
36m 29s
Dec 2025
Kennedy and Khrushchev: 4. Almost caught
A covert convoy of ships carries Soviet missiles across the Atlantic, while American U-2 planes spy over Cuba and the sea routes. And as the ships arrive, Khrushchev writes to Kennedy about the divided city of Berlin. It’s a distraction tactic. But the American spy planes photogr ... Show More
35m 47s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
The Spy Who Started the Cold War | Enemy Alien | 1
It’s the 1940s. Robert Oppenheimer is creating plans for the first atomic bomb. And his colleague is stealing them. Klaus Fuchs is a traitor in Oppenheimer's ranks. A German-born physicist secretly working for the Soviet Union. Oppenheimer will change the world with science; Fuch ... Show More
41m 41s
Aug 2022
Bonus podcast: The Bomb
The man who stole the atomic bomb. Klaus Fuchs is the spy who changed history - why did he give the blueprint to the Soviets? This is season 2, episode 1: A grave matter. Search for The Bomb wherever you get your podcasts. 
21m 35s
Sep 2024
The Spy Who Started the Cold War | Los Alamos | 2
Fuchs’ plan to feed secrets to the Soviets is in jeopardy. The atomic bomb project is closely guarded. That means little contact with the outside world, especially his handlers.Listen to The Spy Who ad-free on Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your fre ... Show More
41m 24s
Oct 2024
The Spy Who Started the Cold War | Lost Control | 4
MI5 is closing in on Klaus Fuchs. But they can't seem to catch him in the act of spying. There’s only one option. They need a confession.Listen to The Spy Who ad-free on Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/th ... Show More
42m 34s
Oct 2024
The Spy Who Started the Cold War | The Most Dangerous In History? | 5
Why did Fuchs take such a huge gamble by sharing US nuclear secrets with the Soviets? Was Oppenheimer's fellow physicist seeking peace - or war? Charlie Higson talks to Frank Close, an author and physicist, about Fuchs' decision and its impact on the course of history.Listen to T ... Show More
32m 2s
Jul 2024
The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | The Stranger In Red Square | 1
It’s 1960. The world hangs on the brink of nuclear war. But in Moscow, a man’s about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkovsky and he wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union’s greatest nuclear secrets. But is he for real or part of an e ... Show More
42m 11s
Aug 2020
Glow
At the intersection of scientific advancement and tragedy is the story of US Radium and the young women who stood up to them. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
27m 29s
Jul 2024
The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Hero or Madman? | 2
After months of missed opportunities, the CIA and MI6 are about to meet Penkovsky. But with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev squaring up to the US President John F. Kennedy over West Berlin, his information could have thermonuclear consequences.Listen to The Spy Who ad-free on Wo ... Show More
39m 33s
Nov 2024
The Spy Who Putin Poisoned | Always a Spy | 3
In a top-secret Russian laboratory, a terrifying chemical weapon called Novichok is about to be hauled out of storage, and will soon reach the streets of British city Salisbury.Listen to The Spy Who ad-free on Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your fre ... Show More
29m 46s