Atomic Gambit

On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was told the Soviet Union was assembling nuclear warheads on the island of Cuba, just 90 miles from the Florida coastline. Over the course of the next 13 days and beyond, President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev would make decisions in a crisis that brought the world closer to all-out nuclear war than it has ever been.

Today, we continue to live with the historic legacy of the Cuban Missile Crisis and its lessons of leadership, diplomacy, and ultimately, grace under pressure. Atomic Gambit takes a deep dive into the history, the players, and the pivotal moments that made this episode a turning point in world history.

This special podcast series tells the story through archival materials from the JFK Presidential Library and interviews with historians and other Cold War experts, including Michael Dobbs, Nina Khrushcheva, Fredrik Logevall, Tom Nichols and more.

Listen to the series below, on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.