Is your job safe from AI? Or is the real question, is your country ready? As artificial intelligence reshapes, Singapore faces a critical challenge. How do we equip citizens to thrive? And how must public policy evolve to redefine the social contract between government, businesses and workers? We're joined by Dr. Reuben Ng, assistant professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His work focuses on trust, social resilience, and the narratives shaping technology. This podcast will unpack the future of work in the age of AI and what Singapore must do to stay ahead.

In the first episode of our newly launched podcast series, “Policy Unpacked”, we explore Singapore’s “small nation, big journey,” featuring Terence Ho, Adjunct Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and author of “How Singapore Beat the Odds.” The conversation explores why Singapore’s survival was uncertain at independence - small population, high unemployment, reliance on British bases - and how it built success through ideas and institutions rather than luck. Ho highlights the pivotal role of first-generation leaders like Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee, long-term planning, strong inter-agency coordination, and empowering capable people - principals, commanders, and civil servants - through mechanisms like block budgeting.

Decades of glorifying overwork are hard to undo. But as the nation turns 60, sustainable performance depends on leaders modelling balance, not burnout.

There is a growing challenge taking shape in Singapore, one involving attention spans, screen time, and invisible dopamine loops. Earlier this year, the Singapore government introduced updated screen time guidelines for children, acknowledging growing concerns that excessive use of digital devices may be contributing to health and behavioural problems in younger users. That announcement came on the heels of a survey revealing that one in two Singaporeans shows signs of problematic smartphone use.