Singapore's policy arguments, recorded in the room.
The Institute of Policy Studies publishes recordings of its public events, from the IPS-Nathan Lecture and a young leaders seminar to the panels and ministerial dialogue of Singapore Perspectives 2026. Subjects run from vanishing forest along the PIE to youth anxiety, chatbot companions and what a we-first society actually is.
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The Institute of Policy Studies releases its public events as audio, and the recordings make no attempt to sound like a studio show. An emcee reads housekeeping notes, a moderator brings speakers on stage, and some sessions close with a prompt to scan a QR code and leave feedback. In between sits serious public argument. Several recordings come from Singapore Perspectives 2026, a conference organised around the theme of Fraternity. Its first panel, Rethinking Social Capital in a Smart Nation, includes a speaker who worries that chatbot companions could leave the next generation unsure how to approach a classmate or a neighbour, and who argues in a book for human-centric design. The closing remarks move the question from whether technology harms or helps to how much effort people will invest in trust and cohesion. The second panel, on challenges to social cohesion, hears about Ask Me Anything sessions on Christianity and Islam attended by a couple of different faiths, parents in tow, as they considered marriage. What mattered most, the speaker reports, was a safe place to ask without judgment. The third, moderated by Dr Laurel Teo of IPS, asks what a we-first society actually is. It takes in a plea for more badminton and pickleball courts, and ends on the admission that Singaporeans can be kiasu even about doing good. The conference's final session is a dialogue with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, with questions moderated by the institute's director. His argument is plain. A country with no oil, no gas and no critical minerals has only its people, so it must keep them competitive through SkillsFuture, the mid-career diplomas of SkillsFuture Level Up and support for displaced workers. The IPS-Nathan Lecture gives one speaker the stage. Dr Shawn Lum's lecture, Singapore Biodiversity and a Thriving City, follows forest along the PIE and near Bukit Batok Road as it gives way to roads, MRT construction and housing. He calls the forgetting that follows shifting baselines, or the extinction of experience: each new group of students at NTU has no idea what was there before. He is careful to say this is no argument against housing, and Audrey Tan of The Straits Times chairs the Q&A. A young leaders seminar, Giving Voice to a Silent Epidemic: Transforming Youth Mental Health in Singapore, sets a keynote beside a panel that includes Daniel Ho, a senior clinical psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health. One speaker maps how a belief that success is scarce passes through schools, parents and peers, raising the risk of anxiety, depression and burnout. For a first listen, the Deputy Prime Minister's dialogue sets out how he sees work and competition in a period of significant transition, while the panels bring a wider spread of voices to the conference theme. Across all of it, a listener hears policy argued out loud in front of a room, questions included.
Made for: Suits a listener who follows Singapore's public policy debates and wants to hear officials, researchers and practitioners make their case to a live audience, including the questions that come back from the floor.
What sets it apart: Instead of studio interviews, it carries recordings of actual public events, with the emcee's housekeeping, the moderators and the audience Q&A still in place, so a listener hears Singapore's policy conversation in the setting where it happened.
The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) was established in 1988 as an independent think-tank to study and generate public policy ideas in Singapore. IPS became an autonomous research centre of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore in 2008. Today, IPS continues to analyse public policy, build bridges between thought leaders, and communicate its findings to a wide audience. The Institute examines issues of critical national interest across a variety of fields, and studies the attitudes and aspirations of Singaporeans through surveys of public perception. It adopts a multi-disciplinary approach in its analyses and takes the long-term view in its strategi…
A vanished Singapore hillside might complicate your next housing debate.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Dr. Sean Lam turns Singapore's changing landscape into a clear lesson in memory, policy, and environmental experience.
Singapore's changing landscape becomes a focused test of how policy, education, and memory shape people's relationship with biodiversity in Dr. Sean Lam's first IPS Nathan Lecture.
A formal seminar shows how Singapore's achievement pressures can leave youth distress hidden in plain sight.
This PlayNext single-episode review presents a formal seminar on youth mental health in Singapore, centered on the pressure young people face from school, family, peers, and the broader belief that success is scarce. Dr.
A civic debate finds its human scale in one student's experience of fading applause.
The third panel, "Building a More Inclusive and We First Society," looks at inclusion through a distinctly Singaporean question: who gets to feel part of the "we." Moderated by Dr.
A grounded panel on social cohesion that finds fraternity in psychological safety, shared questions, and repeated contact.
Singapore Perspectives 2026 considers what can keep Singapore connected as diversity, digital life, and global influence make differences harder to ignore.
A steady policy conversation on how Singapore can stay cohesive and competitive as technology reshapes work and social life.
Singapore Perspectives 2026 ends on a measured conversation between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong and Janaras Devan, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, about how Singapore holds together while digital technologies change work,…
A thoughtful panel on technology, social capital, trust, and the shared work of sustaining cohesion.
Technology is treated here as civic infrastructure, shaping how Singaporeans build and maintain social ties as apps and platforms become part of everyday contact.
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A speaker discusses lessons from Singapore's COVID-19 mental health task force and interagency efforts.
The IPS Nathan Lecture by Dr Shawn Lum frames Singapore biodiversity as a policy issue, a climate issue, and a people issue, not just a nature talk.
["The Institute of Policy Studies seminar \"Giving Voice to a Silent Epidemic\" centers youth mental health in Singapore, with Dr Rainer Tan delivering the keynote and Jacqueline Tilley, Daniel Ho, and Alia Fatin Abdullah on the panel.", "Tan says recent Singapore data suggests nearly one in three youths report poor mental health, and he links that picture to adverse childhood experiences, social media use, academic pressure, and social isolation.", "He also draws on his own ADHD, Tourette's syndrome, bullying, drug addiction, and rehab in Thailand to argue that personal distress cannot be separated from public conditions.", "The talk ends with a policy argument that Singapore needs treatment, well-being promotion, lived experience, peer support, and context-specific intervention rather than a purely medical model."]
["Institute of Policy Studies' panel Rethinking Social Capital in a Smart Nation asks how technology is changing trust, weak ties, and fraternity in Singapore.
Institute of Policy Studies’ Singapore Perspectives 2026 panel “Fraternity” examines how Singapore can build a more inclusive “we-first society” while preserving cultural and individual differences.
Singapore Perspectives 2026 "Fraternity" puts Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong in conversation with Institute of Policy Studies director Janaras Devan about social cohesion in Singapore.
Singapore Perspectives 2026's 'Fraternity' panel asks how Singapore can preserve social cohesion as immigration, ageing, and digital conflict reshape everyday life.
IPS Director Janadas Devan delivers opening remarks at SP2026, comparing the American Declaration of Independence with Singapore's national pledge.
Singapore Perspectives 2026 Session 2 examines citizen deliberation through IPS Policy Lab experiments on polarisation and local-foreign integration.
Singapore Perspectives 2026, hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies, examines how digitization affects friendship, social cohesion, trust, belonging, and inclusion in Singapore.
A dialogue session with Singapore's Minister for National Development on social cohesion and multiracialism at a policy conference.
A conference session featuring a dialogue with Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister on trade and policy issues.
A conversation with Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at a conference marking the 60th anniversary of Singapore's independence, discussing the historical events leading to separation from Malaysia.
A speaker discusses lessons learned from the COVID-19 mental health task force in Singapore, focusing on assumptions about elderly and youth coping with isolation.