Welcome to the Curious Souls Café
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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.
A Message from Our Meetup Community
We, Curious Souls, facilitate meaningful global meetup events where curious people can come together. We believe that discussions about meaningful topics shouldn’t be limited to just a few people, but should be open and engaging for everyone.
The Curious Souls Café is a welcoming space, like a cozy neighborhood café, where you can gather with others, share ideas, and nourish both your mind and spirit. Whether you’re already knowledgeable or you’re just starting to explore these topics, you’ll find a supportive community of fellow curious people who are ready to discuss, and learn together.
➡️ Read the entire message here.
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.
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.
Variation for Larger Crowds: The “Breakout to Big Group” Format
When our events grow larger (typically 7+ people), we use a special Breakout to Big Group format to manage the crowd while keeping conversations intimate. This approach allows us to manage the crowd by splitting into color-coded teams (Red, Blue, Yellow) for the first half of the session.
Curious about exactly how the teams and dice mechanics work? You can find the full details on our How It Works page.
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.
Curious to see what people take away from these sessions? Check out 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.
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!
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.
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.
What Our Community Says
Here is what attendees from around the world are sharing about their experience:
“Great session of thought-provoking questions, vibes were open and welcoming. Great experience.” — Seoul Attendee
“It’s one of the most engaging, soul searching and useful event I have been to.” — Singapore Attendee
“Well-organised by the host. Definitely recommend it to all deep-talk discussion enthusiasts!” — Kuala Lumpur Attendee
“I was genuinely impressed. It was about exploring our ways of thinking through thought-provoking questions in such a fun and engaging way.” — Seoul Attendee
“Thank you so much for a night of deep talks and realizations. Definitely enjoyed every part of it, looking forward for more 😊” — Taipei Attendee
Growing a Global Community
What started in July 2024 has grown into a global community. As of September 2025, we have held over 100 sessions in cities across Asia, including Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, and more.
We are also proud to be recognized as a Meetup Super Organizer, an award given to organizers who generate the highest levels of participation and community engagement.
🗞️ Community Spotlight: “Finding a space for genuine connection...”
“In a hustle-and-bustle city where busyness is the norm, finding a space for genuine, deep connection can feel like searching for a hidden level in a video game. Enter Curious Souls...”
— As featured in the Hong Kong lifestyle publication Pretentious, Moi?
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.
We look forward to sharing a curious conversation with you soon! 😊