‘ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!” Prof Jiang on Biggest Threat To Humanity | Dog Beats Blues With Support Duck

August 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“The outbreak in the United States of America first occurs in Skid Row,” writes Annie Jacobsen in her new book Biological War: A Scenario. That single detail—a biological weapon first taking hold among Los Angeles’s 4,000 unhoused people on Skid Row—anchors one of the most vivid arguments in a sprawling Piers Morgan Uncensored panel on what might actually destroy civilization. The episode brings together three guests with sharply different threat assessments: Jacobsen (biological warfare), Professor Phillips O’Brien (nuclear proliferation), and Professor Jiang Suixin (internal societal decay). Their conversation moves from super-plagues and crumbling nuclear treaties to dog shit on Santa Monica sidewalks, then pivots to a genuinely heartwarming story about a depressed golden retriever nursed back to health by a duck. The throughline is that the greatest dangers may not be the ones we rehearse in Hollywood scripts.

The Biological Threat: Plague as a Weapon

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Opening Montage: The Apocalypse is Trending** - A rapid-fire compilation of quotes from the guests foreshadows the main threats: biological weapons, nuclear proliferation, and societal collapse.
2 (03:09) **Biological War: The "Greatest Overall Threat"** - Annie Jacobsen explains why a genetically modified plague is a science-fact scenario, not science fiction, and why the DoD considers it the top threat.
3 (07:07) **Nuclear Proliferation: The Old Rules Are Dead** - Phillips O'Brien argues the real danger is the collapse of the nuclear taboo, incentivizing more countries to seek their own bombs.
4 (12:48) **The "Zombie Apocalypse" of Internal Decay** - Professor Jiang pivots the threat discussion from external warfare to the internal societal collapse he witnessed in Los Angeles.
5 (19:58) **Is America the New Rome?** - The panel debates whether the US is in an unsustainable decline, drawing parallels to the fall of historical empires.
6 (21:49) **China vs. America: A False Binary?** - The panel confronts Jiang's rose-colored view of China against his critique of the US, and he defends his position.
7 (26:50) **Global Flashpoints and the End of US Dominance** - O'Brien analyzes the multiple current conflicts and argues the risk of a major war is rising due to American decline.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Annie Jacobsen

Show Notes

From the Doomsday Clock inching closer to midnight to fears over nuclear war, chemical weapons, artificial intelligence and escalating conflicts across Europe and the Middle East, the possibility of global catastrophe has returned to the centre of public debate.

After decades of relative peace and rising prosperity, the world is facing its highest number of armed conflicts since the end of the Second World War. Nuclear powers are testing old boundaries, new technologies are creating unprecedented risks, and even the people developing AI are warning about its potential dangers.

So how close is the world to disaster - and what could actually trigger it?

Piers Morgan is joined by game theorist known as 'Professor Jiang', Jiang Xueqin, author of the new book ‘Biological War: A Scenario’, Annie Jacobsen, and historian & professor of strategic studies, Phillips O’Brien, to discuss.

After all the talk of apocalypse and global catastrophe, Piers then interviews viral sensation Tori Cannarelli, the owner of Barley, a golden retriever struggling with depression, and Louis - a duck who has become his constant companion and helped him back to his old self.

(00:00) Introduction

(02:08) Doomsday panel begins

(04:12) Annie Jacobsen on biological warfare

(13:20) Prof Jiang on fearing ‘zombie apocalypse’

(19:00) Phillips O’Brien on China vs the West

(34:38) The Doomsday Clock, AI and climate change

(39:44) Dog and duck Barley and Louie

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