John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev reached an agreement about the Cuban Missile Crisis on October 28, but the crisis wouldn’t end there. Fidel Castro, angered by Nikita Khrushchev’s decision, threatened a serious setback in the negotiations to remove all offensive weapons - including tactical nuclear weapons - from his country.

October 27, 1962, also known as “Black Saturday," was the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis as events began to spiral out of control. With two contrasting messages from Chairman Khrushchev, President Kennedy had to find a way to resolve the crisis or risk a nuclear war. Outside of the White House, the crisis took a fatal turn and war was expected to break out at any moment.

By October 22, 1962, after days of long discussions with his advisors, President John F. Kennedy was ready to go public about the Soviet missiles in Cuba. His address to the American people laid out his plan to initiate a naval quarantine to prevent more Soviet ships and weapons from reaching Cuba. He also stressed the uncertainty and danger that lay in the days and months ahead. In Moscow, this announcement stunned and angered Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who learned that his atomic...

In the first few days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy and his advisors faced an extremely difficult choice on whether to attack Cuba, and how to do it without engulfing the world in a nuclear war. In this episode, you’ll hear some of the conversations from the top secret meetings between Kennedy and his advisors as he considered his options. Meanwhile, the President would have to act in public as if nothing is going on to keep the Soviets from finding out what he knew until he...

From the moment President Kennedy took office, he warned the country about the dangers of nuclear weapons that could result in the deaths of millions. It would be his decisions and actions that would keep the country from the brink of total nuclear war. In the years leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy would face a number of embarrassing failures in both Cuba and on the world stage with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. It would be partly these failures and other escalations that...

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,...

We know much about the speeches President Kennedy gave during his time in office, but what about the ones he never gave. Speechwriter and author Jeff Nussbaum joins us to discuss his new book about how some undelivered speeches in the 1960s, including two by President Kennedy, could have changed history.

In the Kennedy Administration, Edward R. Murrow and a team of journalists and filmmakers produced stories about the United States’ activities and ideals for international audiences. Hollywood producer George Stevens, Jr. led the Motion Picture Service which produced more than 300 mostly short-form films for the global audience. He joins the podcast to reflect on his time in the administration.

Both sides of JFK’s family were at the forefront of the amateur photography movement, using the burgeoning field to document their lives over the course of many decades. Today, this collection of photographs gives us an insight into the lives of these lively families, and also presents some unique challenges to archivists. JFK Library Archivist Laura Kintz tells us about her work exploring the family photo collections.

More than 100 years before President John F. Kennedy would take up residence at the White House, his great-grandmother Bridget Murphy arrived on the shores of America. There she met Patrick Kennedy, another Irish immigrant, and they started a life together that would lead to one of America’s most famous political families. We sit down with Neal Thompson to discuss his new book, “The First Kennedys.”

President Kennedy was the first sitting U.S. President to visit the nation of Ireland. The great-grandson of Irish immigrants, the visit was more than a homecoming for John F. Kennedy-- it was the beginning of a new stronger relationship between the two countries that continues today

Until John Glenn completed his orbital flight in 1962, the United States was trailing the Soviet Union when it came to spaceflight. Sixty years later, NASA continues to lead in space. We revisit Glenn’s historic trip and speak with astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson about how far NASA has come since Glenn and where it hopes to go next.  

President Kennedy understood that advancing technologies would change American society forever and that strong leadership would be needed to protect workers by changes in technology. In this episode, Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA 17th) joins us to look at how technology has changed society since 1960, and what kind of leadership is still needed today to ensure equity in the digital age.

On December 15, 1961. John F. Kennedy became the first sitting president to visit the new Commonwealth of Puerto Rico where he met with Luis Muñoz Marín, the territory’s first independently elected governor. We speak with Puerto Rico’s Governor Pedro Pierluisi  about how Kennedy’s visit 60 years ago and his legacy still resonate with Puerto Ricans today.

Sixty years ago, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy founded the White House Historical Association to support her ongoing work to restore and maintain the White House. This week we spoke with White House Historical Association president Stewart McLaurin as they celebrate their 60 years and learn how the association carries on Mrs. Kennedy’s legacy.

John F. Kennedy, born between two world wars, would see the rise of fascism in his youth and later serve on the front lines to stop it from spreading across the world. Those lived experiences would influence Senator and later President Kennedy as he navigated the country through the rise of another authoritarian movement in Soviet Communism.

While President Kennedy didn’t live long enough to see Congress pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, his brother Robert would pick up where JFK left off. Historian Patricia Sullivan discusses both Kennedys roles during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Georgia Representative John Lewis was a fixture in the civil rights movement and in Congress for 60 years until his death in 2020. In this episode, we look back at his early years during the Kennedy Administration and revisit the legacy of courage he left behind. Joining us in this podcast is longtime civil rights activist Ambassador Andrew Young and Kabir Sehgal who co-wrote the book “Carry On,” with Rep. John Lewis.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to grow up in the White House? The JFK Library has a new special exhibit, First Children: Caroline and John, Jr. in the Kennedy White House. In this episode, we discuss the exhibit with Museum Curator Janice Hodson and also travel back in time to look at an original song about the Kennedys with the original performer.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver may not be as well known as her brothers Jack, Bobby, and Ted, but during her lifetime, she worked tirelessly behind the scenes to influence public policy and serve the public good. In celebration of the centennial of her birth, we speak with biographer Eileen McNamara and her son Timothy Shriver, and hear from Eunice herself.

In this episode, Hemingway Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Hilary Justice gives us the background on the JFK Library’s collaboration with PEN America and Ernest Hemingway family’s support of the PEN/Hemingway Award, and we speak with the 2021 PEN/Hemingway winner, Kuwai Washburn Strong.

Lauren Leander is an ICU nurse at the Banner University Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, who took care of the most critically ill patients in Phoenix and stood with colleagues in a counterprotest of stay-at-home-orders in the early days of the pandemic. As director of the Ohio State Health Department, Dr. Amy Action boldly proposed an aggressive shelter-in-place order to slow the spread of COVID-19 and became the target of protestors and legislators who sought to limit her power.

Darrell R. Marks has spent his career helping his indigenous students at Flagstaff High School find new opportunities after graduation. But when the pandemic hit, his job changed from helping not only his students with their futures, but their families deal with the effects of the pandemic from shortages in food, water, and other basic necessities. Marks is one of seven people being honored with a special JFK Profile in COVID Courage Award for his selfless actions to help others during the...

President John F. Kennedy felt a profound connection to the environment, particularly the sea. During his presidency, Kennedy would establish three national seashores including on Cape Cod. Learn about his environmental legacy from the Superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore and from his granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg.

Thanks to a twist of fate, the archives of Ernest Hemingway have been mostly preserved here at the JFK Library. Learn more about that story from the Library’s Hemingway scholar in residence and hear from two of the filmmakers about how the Ernest Hemingway Collection played a key role in the new documentary.