May 21, 2025. Tony came to Ben wanting to share some life lessons he’d like to leave his currently 4-year-old niece! We push and pull at the life advice Tony has come to, his ongoing journey that brought him to them, and Tony shares many quotes from different figures that have shaped his current worldview.

Content warning: we mention the Ian Fang sexual assault case

Tony is currently residing in the overcrowded cage that is Singapore City. He aims to stay human for the rest of his life. That's a big enough project for him. IG at @the_seasons_still_change

Ben talks about movies on his film podcast at deepcutpod.com, and writes about film at thekinetoscope.com. He lived a past life working in film production. Find him online at benjaminyap.me 

Links:

Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise 

The Space
This episode was recorded in a Public Living Room, a crowd-funded community space in 195 Pearl Hills Terrace. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to help us keep recording, please support the Stranger Conversations crowdfund. This supports their mission to build a third place at the intersection of self-exploration and collective good. You can follow them on Instagram @strangerconvos or go to linktr.ee/strangerconvos where you can find links to the crowdfund and find out more about what they do.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

03:58 Relationship with the space

09:48 Reason behind the topic

13:54 Maintaining your inner child

22:21 Education and parenting

31:14 How Tony rediscovered his inner child

40:08 Experience of the sublime

43:25 Recovering from trauma

48:17 Wariness and maturity

54:57 Tension between wisdoms

01:01:45 Iron ricebowl question

01:03:09 Tony plays the piano for us

May 15, 2025. This episode we begin with Dawne’s topic on climbing and then branch out wide to hear about her career journey, discuss how to open ourselves to new (peak) experiences, and learn to ask for help! (Please help the  podcast by following and rating!!)

Dawne is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Human Studio. With a background in psychology and 15 years in international advertising, she’s seen first-hand how Strengths-based development can drive team success and personal growth. She now works with individuals and teams to help them understand how Strengths coaching can leverage the workplace to be a space for personal growth, allowing them to be better versions of themselves while delivering business growth. Follow her on Instagram at @humanstudiosg

Ben talks about movies on his film podcast at deepcutpod.com, and writes about film at thekinetoscope.com. He lived a past life working in film production. Find him online at benjaminyap.me 

The Space

This episode was recorded in a Public Living Room, a crowd-funded community space in 195 Pearl Hills Terrace. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to help us keep recording, please support the Stranger Conversations crowdfund. This supports their mission to build a third place at the intersection of self-exploration and collective good. You can follow them on Instagram @strangerconvos or go to linktr.ee/strangerconvos where you can find links to the crowdfund and find out more about what they do. 

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro and relationship to the space

07:31 Life lessons from climbing

13:10 Establishing a new coaching practice

17:26 Asking for help

21:45 What is a strength

32:00 Dawn’s peak experience

39:08 Human interactions

47:40 Why Dawne started something new

51:37 Iron ricebowl question

May 14, 2025. Xing Jian joins Ben to share his journey becoming a life coach. We also discuss ways to raise personal awareness, become better friends to others, and toss some possible answers to the point of human existence (wouldn’t we all like to know?).

Content warning: brief mention of suicide

Xing Jian (he/him) is the principal coach at STRANGERINABAR and a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with over 17 years of experience in executive and life coaching. His work is grounded in a deep understanding of communication, self-expression, and human dynamics—skills he’s honed through careers in publishing, PR, marketing, and co-founding a boutique agency. Find out more at strangerinabar.com Follow on IG: @tanxingjian

Ben talks about movies on his film podcast at deepcutpod.com, and writes about film at thekinetoscope.com. He lived a past life working in film production. Find him online at benjaminyap.me 

The Space

This episode was recorded in a Public Living Room, a crowd-funded community space in 195 Pearl Hills Terrace. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to help us keep recording, please support the Stranger Conversations crowdfund. This supports their mission to build a third place at the intersection of self-exploration and collective good. You can follow them on Instagram @strangerconvos or go to linktr.ee/strangerconvos where you can find links to the crowdfund and find out more about what they do. 

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:28 Relationship to the space

05:35 Men’s mental health

08:26 Life-coaching journey

15:06 Coming out and personal development

17:49 Male friendships

20:56 Triggers for personal growth

24:39 Raising personal awareness

33:35 Point to human existence

36:32 Trauma and the future

42:03 Role of a life coach

51:05 How to be better friends

56:00 Iron ricebowl question

April 16, 2025. On the first episode of Public Conversations, Ben chats with Shu about career breaks, generalisation versus specialisation, and finding one’s own identity outside of a career.  We also talk about the impetus behind the podcast, and what we’re trying to do here (in this room, and on Earth).

Shu once taught at a university—until he took a career break. What began as a conventional pause to rest and recharge gradually turned into something deeper: a break not just from work, but from long-held ideas about career, identity, and self-worth. It became an unexpected unraveling of income from purpose, productivity from value. Follow him on Instagram @theshulution

Ben talks about movies on his film podcast at https://deepcutpod.com, and writes about film at https://thekinetoscope.com. He lived a past life working in film production. Find him online at https://benjaminyap.me 

Links:

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/identity-transitions-accepting-that-you-are-not-just-what-you-do 

https://www.ricemedia.co/ashish-kumar-was-singapore-top-psle-scorer-now-retiree/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPQdFWCHDPA 

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/farming-volunteering-dancing-why-some-employees-are-micro-retiring-in-their-20s 

The Space

This episode was recorded in a Public Living Room, a crowd-funded community space in 195 Pearl Hills Terrace. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to help us keep recording, please support the Stranger Conversations crowdfund. This supports their mission to build a third place at the intersection of self-exploration and collective good. You can follow them on Instagram @strangerconvos or go to linktr.ee/strangerconvos where you can find links to the crowdfund and find out more about what they do.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

2:13 - Shu’s relationship to the space

7:32 - Out of office

12:23 - Shu's career break

22:51 - Career and identity

26:59 - Specialisation vs generalisation

37:32- The value of learning about others

41:51 - Fear of failure

48:46 - Making his career break work

55:12 - Early retirement

58:24 - Who are you outside work?

1:04:04 - Iron ricebowl of questions