Engage with ST’s podcasting journalists and expert guests at ST Podcasts Live nights

SINGAPORE - Worried about career longevity? Have you or someone you know been struggling with mental health? Are you a young person who feels caught up in the rat race, or are you curious to know more about Singapore’s heritage and local music scene?

No matter what you may be interested in, everyone gets a say at The Straits Times’ 180th anniversary live podcast events to celebrate the newspaper’s milestone year.

Those who are interested in learning how a podcast recording is done, or in mingling and meeting with like-minded people to discuss the trending topics of the day, have been invited to attend three out of six live podcast recordings held so far this year. Participants can pose questions to the guests after each recording.

In the inaugural live podcast event held at The Foundry in February, host of The Usual Place Natasha Ann Zachariah met with guests from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to discuss “the narrative, resonance and stories behind” the remaking of heritage spaces in Singapore.

Mr Colin Low, chief executive of SLA, and Mr Ng Wee Liang, who creates content on Singapore heritage, spoke with Ms Zachariah on how young Singaporeans can play a part in reviving and preserving historical buildings and their heritage.

Following that, assistant podcast editor and In Your Opinion host Lynda Hong and journalist Christie Chiu looked at music’s transformative impact on dementia care. Guest Johnson Soh, founder of eldercare company SanCare Asia, demonstrated how an instrument called the Crdl (pronounced Cradle) provides a sensorial experience for seniors, allowing them to translate their touch into sounds as a way of connecting with others, while programme executive at Fei Yue Community Services Amanda Soon also spoke about how music and sound can be therapeutic for seniors, and how young people can volunteer to make a difference.

On the next night at The Projector in April, In Your Opinion anchored the event where Ms Hong spoke with two youths about their experiences in starting up a business, and whether school grades would determine success at the workplace.

Ms Adella Yeo Rae-Nyse, who is currently an account manager at a software company, had co-founded MatcHub, a start-up that matched fellow NUS students in finding suitable job roles based on their personalities.

Meanwhile Mr Nabill Shukry Johary, a part-time student with SUSS studying marketing, juggles school with a business he started up in 2021 with his father. Cheekies is their home-based delivery service of healthy meals for the Muslim market - in a bid to help his family move out of their one-room rental apartment in Tampines.

It was organised in partnership with the National Youth Council, in support of the SG Youth Plan – an action blueprint created by youths, for youths and the world that they will lead.

ST’s senior health correspondent Joyce Teo also hosted a session of Health Check on the same night, about how young adults can better care for their mental health.

She hosted guests Ms Lee Yi Ping, the programme lead and principal Case Manager at Chat, Centre of Excellence for Youth Mental Health in Singapore, and Mr Delane Lim, the founder and executive director of the charity Character & Leadership Academy, which runs youth development, mental wellness, and suicide prevention programmes.

The third night - in June - featured ST’s Headstart On Record and discussion regarding career health and well-being at the swanky club Rasa Space. The episode was hosted by correspondent Tay Hong Yi, speaking with guests Noel Png, a telecommunications system engineer at ST Engineering and veteran senior career coach Parameswari Seenivasan. Audience members also chimed with questions about their own careers and opportunities.

This was in partnership with Workforce Singapore, in support of Career Health, a SkillsFuture initiative.

Later in the night, Music Lab host Eddino Abdul Hadi hosted award-winning Singaporean composer, producer, and music director Evan Low to discuss the trajectory of a career in music in Singapore.

A recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award in 2024, Low has worked on over 200 songs. He is best known for being a co-composer and musician on recent National Day Parade songs The Road Ahead (2021) sung by artistes such as Linying, Not Alone (2024) by Benjamin Kheng and the 2018 remake of We Are Singapore.

The fourth night - in August - had a unified theme for a change with our very own ‘Green Night’, featuring two recordings for ST’s Green Pulse podcast series with an intimate crowd of about 100 youth packing the Fashion Pulpit in the Jalan Besar area.

Firstly, Green Pulse co-hosts Audrey Tan and David Fogarty - who are also ST’s assistant news editor and deputy foreign editor respectively - spoke with a dynamic duo who have helped shape Singapore’s response to heat.

They are Associate Professor Jason Lee, director of the Heat Resilience and Performance Centre at National University of Singapore and Ms Jaime Lim, a director at the Occupational Safety and Health Division at the Ministry of Manpower.

Co-hosts of ST’s award-winning Green Trails podcast - Ang Qing and Shabana Begum - followed up by discussing human-wildlife co-existence in Singapore with Mr Kalaivanan Balakrishnan chief executive of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) and Ms Jasvic Lye, campaign manager of Our Wild Neighbours, an outreach initiative. 

The fifth night - in October - had another unified theme of ‘Music Night’, featuring two rising local acts: indie pop singer-songwriter Regina Song and rapper Abangsapau. Held at Esplanade Annexe Studio, the podcast series Music Lab welcomed an intimate live audience of about 90 readers of The Straits Times.

Regina Song, 21, performed a stripped-down version of her ballad Before I Leave and also debuted the unreleased Midsummer Mansion, inspired by a long-distance relationship. She spoke about her viral hit The Cutest Pair, which has amassed over 50 million Spotify streams so far, and how TikTok success led to her rapid rise.

In her conversation with ST’s Music correspondent Eddino Abdul Hadi, she discussed her aspirations, balancing vulnerability in her lyrics, and the challenges of being a full-time musician in Singapore’s indie scene.

Meanwhile, Abangsapau gave the crowd a preview of three tracks from his upcoming debut album - One Minute, Wow., and Selamat Sayang (Peace, My Love). He also surprised the audience with a freestyle titled Runway.

The 26-year-old rapper opened up about his unconventional path - from studying social work to pursuing music, from posting freestyles to performing at the 2025 National Day Parade. His honest remarks touched on childhood struggles with bullying and substance abuse, and his hope to help elevate home-grown artists and for Singaporeans to be proud of its own original music talents.

Our final podcast event for the year will be happening on Dec 2 and stay tuned for updates!

Catch the full episodes on ST’s podcast platforms below.

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Almost every weekday, our ALL-IN-ONE ST Podcasts channel showcases discussions on Singapore current affairs and social issues, geopolitics through an Asian lens, health, climate change, personal finance and career.

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