Yah Lah But

You held your breath waiting for us to discuss Pritam. Now you can exhale! With the trial of the year well underway, we take stock of all the revelations so far, and what is to come. Redactions, soft biscuits, Pritam’s hot lawyer…what’s next? In other news, a vice-principal has been outed for an extramarital affair with the mother of a student, and the evidence is…amusing to say the least. Are ung...

We all thought it was a done deal, but the Singapore Government has swooped in to block the sale of a majority stake of local insurer NTUC Income, to German company Allianz. Why? Well, buckle up–this episode gets pretty technical! We also look at the bigger questions Singaporeans are asking, like should we be grateful that such a bad deal got caught, or worried it almost went through? In other new...

We never thought we'd be able to make a show that involved this much gore and dark comedy, but we just did! It's called "Zombie Safari" & it's Singapore's first adult-animated series about a Zombie apocalypse involving talking animals at a Zoo. We chat with Mark Wee, co-creator and one of the co-founders of Finding Pictures, the animation studio we worked with, as well as Jun Vinh, who played...

This episode we ask: when is a protest, a protest? A Spanish couple on their honeymoon here are providing a fascinating test case. They held up signs denouncing Singaporean Peter Lim’s ownership of football club Valencia, and were shocked when they were not allowed to leave the country. Even with our stringent rules, this feels like a stretch. Join us as we speculate on where the tipping point is,...

We’re horrified that a secondary one girl was beaten up by her own schoolmates at a HDB block near their school, resulting in a ruptured eardrum. We discuss with actor and friend of YLB Munah Bagharib what pushes young people to harm others, and why others are comfortable to watch. But it wouldn’t be YLB if we didn’t also speculate on wild ways to reform bullies! In less distressing educational ne...

Oh Iswaran, we wish we knew how to quit you. Just when we thought we’d packed the former Transport Minister off to prison and closed that chapter, details of his cell emerge… along with a photo of him in prison uniform!!!??? Okaaay, should we be seeing this? We discuss the treatment he will get in Changi Prison, the reasons behind it, as well as the ethics of the photo, which has now been publishe...

It seems we’re not done talking about former Transport Minister Iswaran yet! Just before entering prison, he announced he will not be appealing his one-year sentence. We examine his statement and try to read between the lines. Why the change of tone? How will Singaporeans view him now? Separately, the craze over Labubu dolls here has finally spread to… Taoism?? We discuss if their use in a recent...

The verdict is out! We break down former Transport Minister Iswaran’s jail sentence, and ask the tough questions. Who really won and lost? What else would we have learned if the case went to trial? What’s with Haresh and all his conspiracy theories? We also discuss how a food court ended up reproducing a local artist’s work without permission, and did they try to get around copyright concerns with...

In news that both sucks and blows, Dyson has become the latest tech company in Singapore to do a sudden round of retrenchments, giving the relevant union only a day’s notice! We discuss what the union can still do, as well as Dyson’s broader impact locally. Also, Singapore’s last kampung is back in the spotlight after property TikTokers reported the land to be valued at a whopping $70 million. Why...

Rishi steps up to the plate of guest host, bringing the Sindhi presence back onto the podcast! This week, we talk about the elephant in the room, the MRT East-West line disruption. As Singapore reels from the massive disruption, we sift through the chatter online and try to figure out: who’s to blame? Also, strangely enough, Rishi himself got in the news this week, where he trolled a scam caller f...

Just 2 days removed from F1, the trial of S Iswaran coincidentally begins…with a twist! The prosecution has amended charges of corruption against the former Minister, and he has pleaded guilty to the 5 outstanding charges. Is it over before it has even begun? What is happening here? At the same time, viral livestreamer iShowSpeed continues his whirlwind Southeast Asia tour in Singapore, crossing p...

Is it Bad Behaviour Week in Singapore? A condominium guard threw an order of bubble tea at a delivery rider who did not have the unit number, and a woman helped her driver to cut into a busy lane by getting out of the car and standing in the middle of the lane! What could they have been thinking, and why are such incidents so unsurprising these days? Back to weigh in on these incidents are Team YL...

We were thrilled to have Sergeant Gina, a paramedic who is also an Emergency Medical Service section commander, in the YLB studio. Dive into her inspiring journey with the SCDF, and how her grandmother motivated her to choose this career path. She describes the heart and soul of her lifesaving work, and tells us why, despite being a mother of four, she still volunteered her time and energy to go t...

From 2026, MOE is making it easier for students to qualify for Higher Mother Tongue classes. But why is studying your language at a more difficult level so desirable in Singapore? We ask former Higher Chinese student and now theatre practitioner (in both English and Chinese!) Jo Tan. Also, we discuss the growing trend of micro-weddings, and whether they address the problems of organising tradition...

What, another case of blackface in Singapore? We discuss a car dealership’s recent promo video that features a staff member in dark makeup. It directly references an African-themed meme so we ask: is this racism, or just cringe humour? How does this compare with other instances of blackface / brownface we’ve seen? Hear our takes on pigeons as we talk about a woman who has fed so many of them in Yi...

Our latest guest Jack Sim brings a touch of good ol’ toilet humour onto YLB! As the founder of the World Toilet Organization that initiated the United Nations World Toilet Day, Jack is a self-made man who has his sights set on improving world sanitation from right here in Singapore. But rather than the usual tropes about his background, in this wide ranging discussion, we lift the lid on why he be...

PM Wong made a rare visit on Tuesday morning to the Basic Military Training Centre on Pulau Tekong, and even completed a 1.8km run alongside a group of army recruits. Some online have called this move “wayang”, and demanded real political action to help National Service personnel instead. Are they asking for too much? Elsewhere, Toast Box received flak for raising prices for the second time in les...

With Haresh finally back from his well-deserved babymoon in Bali, we resume our regular format! We address the big announcement from last week’s National Day Rally: the extra 10 weeks of Government-paid parental leave that can be shared between new parents. How are business federations and SMEs reacting to the announcement? Counterintuitively, will it lead to more gender discrimination at work? Al...

(00:00) Tell You First (00:48) Intro (01:49) Discussion on Book - Kiasunomics 3 (02:00) Impact of BTO on Marriages and Divorces (07:42) Discussion on Economic Studies (24:01) Experiment on Water Savings (32:05) Introduction to Golf Data (33:59) Past Events & Data Analytics (35:35) Misconceptions About Economics & Real Estate (37:41) Urban Development & Policy (42:56) Noise Barriers &am...

Our Sponsor: Octa! Download the Octa trading app https://bit.ly/Octa_YahLahButAug and use promo code YAHLAHBUT08 to double your deposit! Disclaimer: Trading involves risk. Please trade responsibly and read the full disclaimer here: Octa's Risk disclosure Private bus company Westpoint Transit was recently in the news for its salary offer of up to $5,000 for bus drivers. The response to the recruitm...

Veteran diplomat Kishore Mahbubani stops by the YLB studio to talk about his recently-launched memoir, Living in the Asian Century, which covers his storied career spanning diplomacy, academia, and even a stint as Singapore’s Ambassador to the United Nations. In spite of everything he’s seen and accomplished in the past 75 years, why does Kishore think the next 10 years are going to be even more e...

On this episode, Mark Tan, the founder of Rice Media, stops by the Yah Lah BUT studio to talk about what inspired him to start the alternative publication. Get the inside scoop on the drama behind their first big story on Steven Lim, and that unforgettable exchange between a Rice Media reporter and Pritam Singh at the WP press conference. We also explore what’s next for Rice Media, and where Mark...

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has been at the centre of a gender controversy at the Paris Olympics, with some accusing her of actually being a man competing in a women’s competition. Now that she’s claimed a gold medal, and subsequently filed a harassment complaint, we go through the nuts and bolts of the controversy. Closer to home, the police were called in over an act of vandalism on the Pandan G...

The Ministry of Education disclosed that device management app Mobile Guardian, which is installed on most personal learning devices, was recently hacked, resulting in 13,000 students getting their devices remotely wiped. How did this lapse occur, and what can be done to help the students who lost years of notes? Also, residents of Holland Road were shocked to find out that an international houseb...

With the recent spotlight on the Income-Allianz deal, we wanted to get a better understanding of Income’s original social mission and why people are feeling anxious about the deal. So we got former NTUC Income CEO Tan Kin Lian himself to come by the YLB studio to give us a “NTUC Income 101” lesson based on his 30 years of experience leading the cooperative. We go into the nuts and bolts about why...