The Bomb

About The Bomb

How the nuclear bomb shaped world history. The scientists who raced to build weapons, the spies who stole the technology and the superpowers who grappled with deployment. In Season 3, nuclear war is terrifyingly close. Can the superpowers of the Soviet Union and the USA prevent apocalypse? Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and US President John F Kennedy, tell the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Season 2 is about Klaus Fuchs, the brilliant young physicist from a pacifist German family whose spying for Russia changed history. Season 1 tells the story of Leo Szilard, and the scientist’s discovery of the lethal potential for nuclear weapons in the race to beat Nazi Germany.

Publisher

BBC World Service

Category

history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Jul 2020

Latest episode

29 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

9 of 56 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   29 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Recommending: 13 Minutes Presents Artemis II

   Humans are returning to the Moon - hear all about it on the BBC’s space podcast. 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II is following Nasa’s mission to loop around the Moon, with a new episode every day. Starts on Monday 30 March 2026. Search for 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Follow or subscribe now so you don’t miss an episode. Nasa plans to return to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. Its Artemis II mission aims to send four astronauts to loop around the Moon. They are planning to go further from Earth than any human in history. The story of Artemis II will be told by space scientist, Maggie Aderin and British astronaut, Tim Peake, with regular guest, US space journalist Kristin Fisher. 13 Minutes is the BBC’s space podcast, telling epic space stories, including the first Moon landing, Apollo 13 and the space shuttle. Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

2. 

   16 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Bonus: The History Bureau

   The History Bureau podcast explores flaws in initial journalism drafts by revisiting defining stories, specifically the 1999 Russian apartment bombings and Vladimir Putin's rise to power, to uncover missed details.

3. 

   2 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Kennedy and Khrushchev: 10. Fallout

   Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of Cold War leaders, examine the Cuban Missile Crisis's climax, revealing the leaders' struggle to avert nuclear war and offering insights into the tense political climate; this is an interview.

Inside a recent episode

Recommending: 13 Minutes Presents Artemis II

Published 29 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] Hopefully, they'll go further from Earth than any human in history. And if humans are returning to missions around the moon, well, the BBC Space Podcast 30 Minutes, 14, 13, 12, has to return to 13 minutes is coming back with 13 Minutes Presents, Artemis 2, I'm Maggie Adarin Pokon. I'm a Space Scientist, specializing in Space Telescapes, and have been obsessed with space since a young age. And if you haven't yet discovered 13 Minutes, previous seasons have told the story of the first moon landing, the near disaster of Apollo 13 and the Space Shuttle story. And now, I'm going to be bringing you a space story in real time. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.3 / 5

1,026 ratings

Pitching The Bomb

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting pitches.

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