The Usual Place

Finding a new job may be on your resolution list this year, but will it be the right move in 2026? Much of the job market in 2025 was dominated by uncertainty and mixed signals. Fresh university graduates shared – and documented on social media – their struggles landing interviews and jobs, despite sending out multiple resumes. Retrenchments climbed in the third quarter of 2025 after d...

At least four three-room resale Housing Board flats were sold for between $900,000 and $935,000 in the first 11 months of 2025. What’s driving these eye-watering prices for smaller units, and how does this affect buyers who see three-room units as an accessible way to own a first home?  Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest...

It’s been about 10 days of excitement at the SEA Games, and Team Singapore has been going all out to make their mark. Hurdler Kerstin Ong and swimmer Amanda Lim have returned home after their events and will join The Usual Place podcast to talk about their experiences in Thailand. One is just getting started, and the other has bid farewell to the SEA Games...

Frequent police advisories, daily news stories, a repeated “Add, Check, Tell” mantra – Singaporeans should be better at recognising scams by now. Yet many continue to fall prey to scammers who keep adapting and refining their approach. So far in 2025, more than 31,200 cases of scams have been reported, with victims losing over $750.3 million. Last year, the amount lost to scams c...

How far would you go to get your child enrolled at a primary school of your choice? One woman repeatedly lied about her home address to get her daughter a spot at the primary school the mother wanted in 2023. But the school discovered the truth, and she was handed a one-week jail sentence in November for subverting the admissions process. While her sentence has raised eyebrows, she’s not the...

It has been about six months since Jasmin Lau and Goh Hanyan stepped into politics after careers in the civil and public service. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Now they are both political office holders across several ministries, taking on new responsibilities and getting used to being in the public eye...

Dig deeper into why Singapore's food sustainability targets have changed. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. The original goal was for farms here to produce 30 per cent of the country’s nutritional needs, which include fish, eggs and vegetables. Now it's 20 per cent of Singapore's fibre and 30 per cent...

This follows a debate over a school's alumni reaction to an ST report on a major scam operation. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. It was a crime report meant to highlight the suspects behind a major scam operation, but a nugget of information sparked an uproar over a school’s image. Last week, The St...

Megan Khung would have turned 10 a few weeks ago, if she were still alive today. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Instead, five years after her death, the findings by a review panel detailed how, within a year, there were several lapses at various agencies that could have helped her. The panel’s repo...

Many people switch from smoking to vaping for different reasons. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. For Mr Muhammad Dandiar Rosli, he saw vaping as a cheaper alternative to smoking, so he decided to give it a try. But it nearly cost him his life. Just a month after he started vaping in 2020, he ended up in h...

Parliament convened in September, but a familiar face from the previous term wasn’t there. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Progress Singapore Party’s secretary-general Leong Mun Wai was a notable presence as a Non-Constituency MP during the 14th term of Parliament, sometimes having heated exch...

Hybrid work arrangements were once widely seen as the future of work, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic upended the daily grind we were used to. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Now, some businesses and employers appear to be changing course. Last week, the National University of Singapore raised eyeb...

A marathon Parliament session unfolded last week, as MPs debated the President’s Address over five days. A total of 81 MPs spoke in support of the motion, including the 32 newly elected members who delivered their maiden speeches. They raised issues ranging from job and wage anxieties to bridging the wealth inequality gap and the disruption caused by artificial intelligence (AI). In this epi...

Public transport operators SMRT and SBS Transit have been catching some heat lately, following a spate of at least 15 instances of rail delays and interruptions since July. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. In the first three weeks of September, there were six incidents occurring due to train faults or sign...

Pickleball has been a smash hit in Singapore over the past couple of years, but not everyone’s a fan. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. The game has attracted players of all ages looking to learn a new skill, keep active or meet fellow ‘picklers’. On the flip side, pickleball has sparked c...

Gen Zs are out here skipping the alcohol, but not the party. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. In daytime or earlier-evening parties, a growing number of young people in Singapore are heading to raves, cafes and clubs to vibe to sick beats – with matchas and coffees in hand. I’m not a clubber by...

As a nation of foodies, we watch the food and beverage (F&B) scene closely to see who comes and goes. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. In recent months, the headlines have been dominated by farewells as home-grown restaurants, bakeries, bars and even dining chains have called it a day. This week’...

Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Headlines about the job prospects of fresh graduates haven’t been reassuring lately. And reports over the last year indicate that more graduates are struggling to land full-time roles, with more taking on freelance, part-time or temporary work. Some young pe...

How Singapore can truly be a ‘we first’ society. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place every Thursday as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. “It’s not ‘I’ or ‘me’. It’s ‘we’. To keep Singapore going, we must be a ‘we first’ society.”  This was Prime Minister Lawrence Wong&rsqu...

The clock is ticking on the leases for older Housing Board flats, and an answer on what the Government plans to do about lease decay dropped earlier this week. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat updated on the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers) in an interview that was p...

Find out why some young people are taking social skills classes. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Some young adults are struggling with everyday conversations and other basic forms of social interaction. Whether it’s making small talk with strangers, holding eye contact, or just answering a phone call (just text me...

If combining the words “kiss cam”, “Coldplay”, “Astronomer” and “affair” means nothing to you, you have managed to be blissfully unaware of the internet’s weekend meltdown over a very public spectacle. Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Here’s the TL;DR recap: A c...

Kpods, a street term for drug-laced e-vaporisers, has been much-talked about this week.  Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Videos of vape users taken by the public have been surfacing online – in particular, of younger people – turning into “zombies” and behaving erratically after using etomid...

Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah at The Usual Place as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. Two months after its dismal showing at the 2025 General Election, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) has shaken up its leadership team. On July 5, it announced that its founder and chairman Tan Cheng Bock, and vice-chair Hazel Poa had stepped down from their roles in the central executiv...

How should schools, educators and students adapt accordingly? Synopsis: Join Natasha Ann Zachariah every Thursday, as she unpacks the latest current affairs with guests. In June, three students at the Nanyang Technological University received zero marks for an assignment after they were found to have used generative artificial intelligence tools, or Gen AI, in their work. They were penalised for a...