The Curious Souls Café

In a world increasingly shaped by personalized feeds and online interactions, do you ever miss the magic of a real, face-to-face conversation? Do you crave a space to explore life's big questions, share personal experiences, and connect with others beyond superficial small talk? If so, you’ve found your community.

A Space for Meaningful Conversations

Curious Souls Café is a “third place”—a social environment separate from the familiar worlds of home (the "first place") and work (the "second place"). It's a community-driven initiative where people from all walks of life gather for thoughtful, introspective conversations in a safe, non-judgmental environment.

Our philosophy is simple: we believe in the power of in-person interaction to foster deeper bonds, cultivate genuine friendships, and enable personal growth. While we use online tools like Meetup to organize, our core mission is to bring people together in real life to counter the social bubbles and isolation that can arise from our increasingly digital lifestyles.

What started in Hong Kong in July 2024 has grown into a global community. As of September 2025, we have held over 100 sessions in cities like Singapore, Taipei, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and many more.

A group of friends at a coffee shop.
What a typical session looks like. (Photo by Brooke Cagle)

How Does It Work? A Journey Through Questions

At the heart of the Curious Souls Café experience are questions. Our events are designed to balance structure with spontaneity, typically unfolding in multiple rounds.

Physical question cards with prompts laid out on a table.
An example of prepared question cards used in our sessions.

Round One: Curated Conversations

To get the conversation started, we use thoughtfully curated question cards designed to spark reflection and personal sharing. Participants might select a few cards and choose one that resonates most with them. Our web app offers a digital alternative, presenting questions from various themed decks.

Round Two: Participant-Led Exploration

This optional second round invites you to become part of the creative process. You can write your own questions on a blank piece of paper, inspired by your thoughts, recent experiences, or a topic from the first round. The group then often decides which questions to explore, leading to beautifully organic and spontaneous discussions.

Don't worry if you feel uncomfortable with a question—you are always free to pass.

Handwritten questions on small pieces of paper submitted by participants.
An example of write-your-own questions from participants.

Moments of Truth

The event wraps up with a quick reflection session, where participants share their key takeaways, insights, or lessons learned. This closing round encourages the emergence of collective wisdom and helps solidify the connections and ideas developed throughout the event.

For a complete overview, you can read our detailed event structure guide, and the event insights section for anonymous highlights from some of our past meetups.

Explore Diverse Themes with Our Question Decks

Our conversations cover a wide range of universal themes, from self-discovery and authenticity to happiness, love, and navigating life's transitions. To help guide discussions, question cards can be categorized into multiple levels, from lighter topics to deeper reflections.

Examples of question cards for 'Love Relationships' sorted into three difficulty levels.
Custom question cards can be sorted into levels to ease into deeper topics.

Here are just a few of the themes we explore:

  • Authenticity: Align your actions with your values and embrace your true self.
  • Transitions: Navigate life’s changes with prompts that foster reflection and personal growth.
  • Work that Resonates: Explore your evolving relationship with work, purpose, and fulfillment.
  • Inner Child: Reconnect with your playful, creative, and curious younger self.
  • Global Curiosities: Dive into questions written by participants from our sessions around the world.

A Playful Twist: The Dice Decides!

Handmade colored D6 dice, each with two faces in red, yellow, and blue. On each dice, three sides include a striped face for each color variant.
Our set of striped dice with a "punishment" option for meaningful bonding actions.

To add an element of fun and spontaneity, we sometimes use a colorful six-sided dice or a virtual dice on our web app to decide who begins a discussion. The dice roll determines which team or individual starts, creating a fair and engaging way to kick off the conversation.

Both the physical dice and the virtual dice roller offer a "punishment" option that prompts meaningful and fun actions if the dice lands on a striped color. These actions, like “Write a comforting message for each other to read on tough days,” are designed to help deepen connections.

Action Prompt page
The Action Prompt feature on the Curious Souls Cafe web app provides meaningful actions which support the “punishment” option.

Continue the Conversation: The Post-Event Connection

The dialogue doesn’t have to end when the formal session concludes. Some of the most memorable and free-flowing conversations often take place during optional post-event activities, whether it’s over a meal, a picnic, a hike, or another casual gathering. These unstructured moments provide an opportunity to deepen the connections formed during the event.

man in blue long sleeves beside woman holding a book
Our Seoul group has had their first picnic recently. (Photo by Andrea Piacquadio)

Join a Global Community of Curious Souls

Ready to skip the small talk and dive into something more meaningful? Our public events are free to attend, and you are only responsible for your own food and drink at the venue.

Explore our global community groups on Meetup to find an event near you, or bring the spirit of the Café into your own conversations with our open-source web app.

View All Events

We look forward to sharing a curious conversation with you soon! 😊