Redefining Success

Jonathan Toyad is a video games journalist and the content director of Kakuchopurei, one of the most prominent video games news sites in this region. He joins us to share how he made a career in video games content creation in Malaysia. Image Credit: Kakuchopurei See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

William Tiong, a Malaysian music business creative currently residing in Boston. He’s currently completing his final year in Berklee College of Music. In this episode, he joins us to talk about his passion for music, which only bloomed when he was pursuing A-Levels, his idea of success and whether pursuing music for your tertiary education is a good move. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy in...

Professor Dr Azhar Ismail, the Vice Chancellor of Nilai University is an entomologist who was recently awarded the US Alumni Impact Award at MACEE’s Homecoming Gala 2023. He joins us on this episode to discuss why he’s so passionate about insects and how he defines success. Image Credit: Nilai University See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Wee grew up wanting to be a lawyer. He says it's the concept of fairness and later justice, that drove him to pursue this career. What's interesting is, he also found a way to incorporate his love for sports into his legal career. He joins us on this episode to talk about his journey. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eunice Martin Lim is a food stylist and professional food photographer. She’s the founder of Through My Lens, a production house which has served over 100 brands since 2014. She joins us on this episode to share her journey and how her idea of success has changed over time.  Image Credit: Eunice Martin Lim See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Liew Xian Jiong is the Co-founder of Biang Biang Noodle Bar, where they serve a type of ‘hand-smacked’ noodle that originates from the Shaanxi region in China.  In this episode, he joins us to share his journey. We chat about why he decided to leave the advertising field despite pursuing so passionately in university, working for his dad’s construction company and finally opening his own nood...

Dr Chua Sook Ning, is a clinical psychologist, researcher and founder of Relate Malaysia, an NGO that raises awareness on mental health, provides mental health services and does advocacy too. She joins us on the show to share why she’s so passionate about psychology and how she defines success. Image Credit: RELATE Malaysia See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Samson Thomas (who goes by Saint TFC) is an emcee and rapper for close to two decades now. On today’s show, he talks about what it means to be a Tamil rapper in Malaysia, the challenges he has faced and what it meant to him and his family when he was called to rap in an Indian Malayalam language film.  Image Credit: Saint-TFC See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carmen Lim is a para swimmer. In 2015, when she was merely 15 years old, she broke the 50m record in the ASEAN para games and this year, she won three gold medals at the event. On top of being a brilliant athlete, Carmen is also a law graduate from Cambridge University. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yang Fairuz is the Chief Commercial Officer at Iraya Energies, an organisation that gathers and transforms unstructured data of the subsurface of the earth and surface facilities to find and produce the best sources of energy, using AI-enabled and cloud-native software. She joins us on the show to discuss what the jargons in the previous sentence mean, why she decided to become a geophysicist and...

Kannan Murugasan has been a freelance personal trainer, who specialises in cycling, for more than 20 years. He joins us to discuss the challenges and joys of being a personal trainer, his passion for cycling and how his idea of success has evolved over the years.  Image Credit: Kannan Murugasan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Story Book is an event space for storybook-themed activities and events. It was launched in 2018 by Jeanisha Wan whose teenage dream was to create a space where pages of storybooks could come alive and the limits of your imagination could be challenged. Jeanisha joins us on this episode to talk about her journey and how she plans on cultivating a generation of storytellers. See omnystudio.com/...

Chew Kok Lynn a Coral Ecologist and Senior Scientist at Coralku, a research-driven coral restoration and conservation non-profit enterprise. With a deep love for the ocean Chew Kok Lynn has dedicated the past few years of her life to understanding and restoring coral reefs. She joins us on the show today to talk about her passion and the most fulfilling aspect of working with nature. See omnystudi...

Ts Uma Shangery Aruldass is an Aerospace Engineer and a Professional Technologist (Ts) in Aerospace and Aviation technology. She’s now the technical services and planning manager at Berjaya Air. She joins me to share how her curiosity as a child led her to become an Aerospace Engineer.  This episode is part of our Women in STEM series, where we’re highlighting brilliant women in the field of...

Ts. Sharifah Zaida Nurlisha is the CEO of MMC Oil & Gas Engineering, an engineering company providing comprehensive technical services for various industries such as oil & gas and petrochemical in Malaysia. She joins me to discuss her journey from instrumentation engineer to CEO of an oil & gas company, and how she did it while taking care of five children.  This episode is part o...

Dr Oon Chern Ein is an Associate Professor at INFORMM – the Institute For Research in Molecular Medicine, Universiti Sains Malaysia. In 2019, she received The Most Promising Academician Award from the Ministry of Education. She joins us to talk about her passion for science, which only started to bloom as she was doing her PHD, and why she thinks it’s important to strive for excellence, not perfec...

Prof Dr Jane Labadin is a computational mathematician. She’s a Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She joins us on the show today to share how her curiosity about how the world works led her to pursue Science and Mathematics, how her family has been her biggest support, and more. Image Credit: Unimas See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan is a biotechnologist. She’s the executive director of Malaysian Biotechnology Information Center (MABIC), and is listed as 100 most influential people in the field of biotechnology by the 7th edition of The Scientific American Worldwide View: A Global Biotechnology Perspective Journal. Her list of accolades and accomplishments is endless. But what drives her to keep doing...

Cynthia Gabriel is a human rights activist and one of the founding directors of C4, which is the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism. Over the past 20 years, she has dedicated her life to fighting corruption and promoting accountability and transparency in Malaysia. Cynthia Gabriel played a significant role in exposing and fighting against the corruption scandal involving former Prime Ministe...

Dr Norilmi Amilia Ismail is an Aerospace Engineer. She’s an academic at the School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and also the founder of SpaceIn, a company that focuses on Small Satellite System, High Altitude Platform System and Space Education. Last year, she was selected as the sole Malaysian to participate as a mentor in the United Nation’s Space4Women programme. Sh...

Lydia Lee was once an up-and-coming litigation lawyer grinding away at a medium sized law firm. She was great at her job. But one day, she decided to give it all up, join an NGO and proceed to live off the grid amongst the locals in rural Sabah. So, what prompted Lydia to take this leap? She joins us to share her story.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since his university days, Raymon Ram has been fascinated with criminology, especially if it relates to white collar crime. Today, he's a certified fraud examiner and an anti-money laundering specialist running his own firm (Graymatter Forensic Advisory) and also doing advocacy work. He joins us on the show to discuss what drives him to fight white collar crime. Image Credit: Facebook/Raymon Ram S...

Sivaranjani Manickam is the National Workers Bureau Coordinator of Parti Sosialis Malaysia, and also a part of Asylum Access. In this episode, she joins us to discuss why she decided to become an activist, if it’s a sustainable career in Malaysia and finding the right balance between helping yourself and society.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melanie Hwa's passion to explore the natural world has been her guiding compass throughout her career. On this episode, Melanie joins us to share why she decided to leave the corporate world to pursue a career in diving and of course, how she defines success.  Image Credit: Facebook/Melanie Hwa See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a veterinarian who happens to be Muslim, Dr Salehatul Khuzaimah is constantly criticised for treating dogs. However, she believes that vets should care for all creatures equally. She joins us on the show today to share what propelled her to become a vet and how she deals with some of the negativity that comes her way.  Image Credit: Facebook/Salehatul Khuzaimah Mohamad Ali See omnystudio.c...