Episode 05: Virginia Cha
Professor Virginia Cha: thriving beyond retirement in Singapore's engineered blue zone
AIRED: 11/11/2025
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Introduction
What if the best educated, most experienced generation in history simply stopped contributing at 65? What if all that knowledge, those networks, that hard-won wisdom just… retired?
Professor Virginia Cha wasn’t having it. And thank goodness for that.
In this conversation, Virginia takes us inside Singapore’s extraordinary journey to becoming the world’s sixth blue zone – and the only engineered one. But more importantly, she reveals how she’s redefining what’s possible in our 60s and beyond through the Distinguished Senior Fellowship Program at the National University of Singapore.
Why this matters for midlife men
If you’re in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, you’re probably wrestling with some version of the same question: what’s next? Your career has been your identity. You’ve climbed, you’ve achieved, you’ve provided. But now what?
Virginia’s work offers something rare: a roadmap that doesn’t involve golf courses and grandchildren (unless that’s your thing). She’s created a model for what she calls “thrivers” – people who refuse to accept that purpose expires with their corporate ID card.
The statistics are sobering: in Singapore, 28% of the population will be over 65 by 2030. If you’re under 40 there, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of living to 100. We’re not just living longer – we’re facing 20 to 30 years of life after traditional retirement.
The question isn’t whether we’ll have this time. It’s what we’ll do with it.
In this episode, we explore
- Singapore’s blue zone engineering: How deliberate policy and social cohesion created one of the world’s healthiest, longest-living populations
- The thriver philosophy: Why Virginia rejects the word “seniors” and what it means to truly thrive in your third act
- Building the Distinguished Fellow Program: The entrepreneurial journey of creating Asia’s first fellowship for accomplished professionals in their 60s and beyond
- The magic of bringing people together: How 21 fellows aged 47 to 82 found deep friendship and renewed purpose through learning
- Buddhist principles in design: The hidden philosophy behind the program’s “random” curriculum
- The male energy shift: Virginia’s surprising observation about how men transform when given new purpose
Virginia shares candidly about everything from stalking professors to get them to teach, to the unexpected joy of being 65 (“Nobody thinks that’s going on anymore”). Her LinkedIn bio starts with “I am old” – not as resignation, but as a badge of honour earned through experience.
This isn’t a conversation about winding down. It’s about what becomes possible when we stop measuring success by conventional business metrics and start asking: how can I be helpful?
Guest info
Professor Virginia Cha is an adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore and Academic Director of the Distinguished Fellow Program, Asia’s first fellowship designed for accomplished professionals navigating their third transition.
With a background spanning tech entrepreneurship across Singapore, China and the United States, Virginia earned her PhD in her 50s before turning her attention to reimagining what’s possible beyond traditional retirement.
Her work centres on creating psychologically safe environments where experienced professionals can explore new knowledge, build meaningful connections and develop projects that contribute to society.
A pragmatic entrepreneur at heart, she approached NUS President Professor Tan with a simple pitch: create the lifelong learning program she wanted for herself. 18 months later, the Distinguished Fellow Program launched—considered “sonic speed” for a university.
Virginia’s philosophy draws from Buddhist principles of seeing deeply, letting go and being free, which she’s embedded into the program’s design without making it explicit. At 65, she describes herself as happily busy, joyfully contributing and completely free from the constraints of others’ expectations.
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