By Muhammad Al Hakim (Political Science + NUSC ’26)
“Alumni Spotlight Series” brought to the community by the NUSC Committee for Alumni Relations (NUSCCAR) team.
The third edition of the ‘Alumni Spotlight of the Year’ series, organised to connect alumni with current graduates by NUSCCAR, proudly presents Mr Keith Yap (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics + Yale-NUS ’20). Keith is the first invited Yale-NUS alumnus to share his journey from being a student to civil servant and now host and founder of “The Front Row Podcast”. Some of his notable guests include Ambassador Chan Heng Chee, former diplomat Mr Bilahari Kausikan and Professor Kishore Mahbubani.
It was a cosy, intimate time on 6 October 2025, as students gathered and met Keith in person. They raised questions about the inspiration behind his podcast and how he defines success, while chiming in enthusiastically to his sharing.
To kick things off, Keith shared the pivotal role that both Yale-NUS College (Yale-NUS) and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy had played in shaping his personal development – providing intellectual space and access to distinguished scholars, which afforded him invaluable opportunities and new perspectives. In particular, he recounted a conversation he had with Professor John Van Wyhe, Senior Lecturer at the NUS Department of Biological Sciences, about a story in Charles Darwin’s diary: an avid beetle collector, Darwin once found two ground beetles, holding one in each hand, when he spotted a third rare beetle. Not wanting to lose any of them, he held one of the first two beetles in his mouth. However, the beetle sprayed a defensive acidic fluid, causing him to drop it and lose the third beetle as well. For Keith, the tale underscores excellence and attention to detail – “find your beetle” speaks of the passion that drives meticulous work. And excellence, he stressed, goes beyond grades; it is sustained curiosity and initiative. An example of that would be his personal project on transcribing a lecture by Mr George Yeo at Yale-NUS that led to him serve as Mr Yeo’s research assistant for his “Musings” series.
After three years at EnterpriseSG, Keith left to start The Front Row, seeking a Singaporean lens on geopolitics and greater representation of Asian voices. His interviews weave personal anecdotes, history and hard facts, with guests such as former PAP MP Inderjit Singh and sociologist Professor Chua Beng Huat. “A podcast at 25 is cool; at 35 it’s a midlife crisis,” he joked, adding that the best time to take risks is when opportunity costs are low, such as when one is still young or when the economy is not doing well. Since the leap, the show has grown a sizable YouTube following.
Learning about each student’s major, passion and future plans while seeking advice from Keith.
Asked how he secures guests on his podcast, Keith said sincerity is key: being genuinely interested, identifying a compelling angle, and doing the homework – researching rigorously and reading deep into their work.
To students contemplating their next steps, his advice was simple, “Be excellent. Be not afraid to try. Find your beetle.”
