Hello Universe

By Kyley Caldwell, Eva LiaoHealth & Fitness Mental Health Religion & Spirituality Education Self-Improvement Spirituality

Hello Universe episodes

April 29The End of an Era - Kyley & Eva Say Farewell
It's the final episode of Hello Universe, and we're not going out quietly. Eva and Kyley sit down for one last long, meandering, deeply honest conversation — the kind that made this show what it is.
They talk about how they both arrived at the same conclusion at the same time: it was simply, organically, time. From there, the conversation opens up into everything this podcast has really been about — personal evolution, spirituality, surrender, ambition, friendship, and the courage to show up as a work in progress.
Kyley reflects on her journey from corporate sales director to embodied, magic-wielding creator. Eva shares how years of spiritual exploration have slowly dissolved her perfectionism and her fear of being misunderstood. Together, they look back at the lessons baked into the behind-the-scenes of building this show — the guilt, the hiding, the moments of repair, and the unconditional love that made it all work.
They close with some of their most honest advice yet: change your mind freely, share yourself as a work in progress, know your capacity, have the audacity to ask — and never underestimate the profound medicine of a really good female friendship.
This isn't really an ending. It's a pivot. And if you want to stay in the loop for what comes next, be sure to share your email here so we can keep in touch.

In This Episode:
How Kyley and Eva both independently realized the show had reached its natural end — at the exact same time

How each of them has changed over six years (as seen through each other's eyes)

The evolution of their definitions of spirituality — from linearity and answers to surrender and embodiment

The role the body, nature, and "I don't know" have played in their spiritual growth

How their relationships with ambition have shifted from lack-fueled striving to something more heart-led

The wisdom inside creative partnerships — what makes them thrive and what breaks them

Their final pieces of advice for listeners on creativity, capacity, and showing up honestly
Want to stay in the loop for what comes next with Kyley and Eva? Share your email here!
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Eva's free course on AWAKENING
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
1 hr 19 min
April 22 The 7 Deadly Sins with Courtney Smith
Courtney Smith, executive coach and co-author of Choosing Wholeness Over Goodness, joins us this week and we are so excited to talk to her about what it looks like to loosen our grip on being “good,” and instead allow for wholeness.
This conversation also opens up a deeper framework through the Enneagram and the original roots of the “seven deadly sins” not as moral failings, but as patterns that once helped us feel safe, alive, or connected… and eventually became limiting.
What we cover in this episode:
🔥 The “skillful practice of anger” and what it means to feel it without directing or suppressing it
😬 Why anger is so often followed by fear—and how those two get intertwined in the body
🧠 The subtle ways we avoid anger (including disassociation, fatigue, and “not knowing” we’re angry)
✋🏽 How anger can function as a clean signal: “this isn’t working”
🌊 Why anger doesn’t come with a roadmap—and what it asks of us instead
🌀 The original meaning of the “seven deadly sins” and how they’ve been misunderstood over time
🧭 How patterns that once protected us can become the very things that keep us stuck
💔 The cost of trying to be “good” and how it can lead to self-abandonment
🌿 What it means to choose wholeness instead—and why that can feel disorienting
🎭 Using parts work and playfulness (yes, including your inner “traffic cop”) to relate to yourself differently
⚡ The connection between anger, aliveness, and life force in the body

Courtney Smith is an executive coach who helps her clients see the world more clearly and live in greater resonance with their values, potential, and purpose.
Website: www.courtneysmithconsulting
Substack: https://courtneycsmith.substack.com/
Connect with us:
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Eva's Free course on spiritual AWAKENING
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course

1 hr 17 min
April 15You Cannot be a Coward at the Pulpit with The Rev. Gerlyn Henry
In this episode, we sit down with Reverend Gerlyn Henry, a Toronto-based Anglican priest whose presence online has been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) shifting how people think about faith, the church, and what it means to live in alignment with what you actually believe.
Reverend Gerlyn shares openly about learning discernment in a world that constantly demands a reaction. About making mistakes publicly and letting those moments shape her integrity rather than collapse her into shame. About the responsibility of having a “pulpit” in the modern age—whether that’s a church or a TikTok account.
Toward the end of the episode, she shares about her recent trip to Palestine and what it was like to witness firsthand the realities on the ground. It’s a sobering and humanizing look at how narratives are shaped, how separation is maintained, and what it means to actually see something for yourself.
What we cover in this episode:
🌿 Learning discernment in a world that constantly demands your voice—and how to tell what’s actually yours to carry

🔥 Why making mistakes (especially publicly) can be one of the most honest ways to grow

💔 The difference between discomfort that stretches you and discomfort that signals something is out of alignment

🧭 How to build a moral compass over time—and why it often comes from reflection, not perfection

🕊️ What it’s like to represent faith in a time when so many people feel hurt by religious institutions

🌊 The role of resentment in spiritual life—and what might be underneath it

⚖️ How proximity to power can distort values, even in spaces meant to serve love and justice

🌍 A firsthand account of visiting Palestine, witnessing separation and disparity, and what it means to “bear witness”

💡 The tension between staying silent and speaking up—and why “you cannot be a coward at the pulpit”

🤝 Small, everyday moments where integrity is tested—and how those moments shape who we become
Reverend Gerlyn's bible recommendations:
1. First Nations Translation
2. The Bible Project’s God’s Story as told by God’s Children
3. The Woman’s Bible by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
4. Harper Colin’s Study Bible (for a standard study Bible)
5. True Images Teen Bible (for young teen girls, not affirming. Needs a conversation around gender roles and sexuality, but will help child actually enjoy reading the Bible)
5. A Book of Belonging by Mariko Clark (For young kids)
5. The Action Bible & Bible Project’s Illustrated Summaries for Biblical Books (for people who like comic style)
Other Links & Resources:
https://www.instagram.com/gerlynhenry/
Learn more about solidarity trips to Palestine: https://www.friendsofsabeel.ca/

Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Eva's free course on AWAKENING
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
1 hr 19 min
March 18 Letting Life Change You with Simona Irwin
Simona Irwin is a Toronto-based mindfulness teacher, somatic practitioner and family constellation facilitator who weaves nervous system tending, deep ecology, and embodied movement into spaces of belonging and aliveness.

This is a conversation about healing, but not in a neat or prescriptive way. It’s about what it means to live through something difficult, to change because of it, and to keep meeting yourself as that change continues.

What we cover in this episode:
🌊 The practice of letting life change you (instead of trying to control every outcome)
🧠 Chronic illness, fear, and the surprising role of the nervous system in healing
🔥 The exhausting loop of trying everything—and what happens when you stop
💔 Mother wounds, grief, and the complexity of showing up at the end of a life
🪶 What “willingness” actually looks like in real time (not the Instagram version)
🌀 The tension between mystical experiences and being a grounded, practical human
🌱 How giving others grace can quietly open the door to giving it to yourself
🧍🏻‍♀️ The parts of us that resist healing—and why they might not be wrong

Contact Simona -
https://turningtowards.me/
https://www.instagram.com/turningtowards/

Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Eva's Free course on spiritual AWAKENING
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
1 hr 26 min
February 04 Spiritual Tools for Revolutionary Times with Kyley and Eva
Kyley and Eva sit down to talk about what has been happening in North America around ICE, immigration enforcement, and the wave of fear, grief, rage, confusion, and moral distress many people are carrying in their bodies right now.

They explore what happens when institutions dehumanize people, how fear spreads through communities, and why numbness can start to feel like a survival strategy. At the same time, they reflect on the quiet, often unglamorous work of staying human: letting grief be present, allowing anger without letting it harden into hatred, and remembering that compassion does not require self-destruction.

This is a conversation for anyone who feels torn between caring deeply and needing to protect their own mental and emotional health.

What we cover
🧠 How the nervous system responds to ongoing political and social threat
💔 The emotional impact of ICE enforcement on individuals and communities
🧍‍♀️ Why numbness, shutdown, and overwhelm are understandable responses
🔥 Making space for anger without letting it turn into dehumanization
🌊 Grief as a natural response to witnessing harm and loss of safety
🧭 The difference between staying informed and being constantly flooded
🛑 Boundaries as a form of care, not avoidance
🤝 How to hold compassion without collapsing into helplessness
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Eva's Free course on spiritual AWAKENING
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
1 hr 36 min
January 21 Kyley is Catholic again??
After years of unravelling inherited belief systems, questioning authority, and prying spirituality out of the grip of shame, she finds herself back in conversation with Catholicism.

What we cover in this episode:
✝️ Kyley’s complicated return to Catholicism and what “return” actually means here
🕯️ Ritual, repetition, and why the body remembers faith even when the mind resists it
🌀 Leaving a religion without leaving the parts that shaped you
🔥 Spiritual rebellion, authority wounds, and the long shadow of shame
🤍 Grief, belonging, and the tenderness of being spiritually homeless
🗝️ Letting spirituality be messy, unresolved, and deeply personal

If you’ve ever felt spiritually in-between or you’ve ever missed something you thought you were done with, this one's for you!

Sign up for Awakening with Eva for FREE
https://dogged-trailblazer-8821.kit.com/756fe8553d
Torchbearer Workshop with Kyley
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/torchbearer-workshop
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Eva's Free course on spiritual AWAKENING
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
57 min
January 14 Our love/hate relationship with being the victim with Kyley and Eva
In this episode of Hello Universe, Kyley and Eva wade unpack how victim consciousness can form as a protective response to real harm, heartbreak, overwhelm, and unmet needs and how it can quietly harden into an identity that keeps us stuck, depleted, and disconnected from our power.
This conversation is not about bypassing pain, minimizing trauma, or pretending hard things didn’t happen. Quite the opposite. Kyley and Eva explore how victim consciousness often arises when pain hasn’t been fully felt, witnessed, or metabolized. They talk candidly about resentment, self-pity, martyrdom, righteous anger, and the strange comfort that can come from staying “right” and wronged.
This is a conversation for anyone who has ever felt stuck in resentment, helplessness, or “why me?” energy, and also for anyone who is afraid to fully feel their anger, grief, or longing.
What we cover in this episode:
🌀 What victim consciousness actually is and how it differs from experiencing real harm
🧠 How victim identity can form as a protective response to unwitnessed pain
🔥 The difference between liberating anger and anger that keeps us stuck
💔 Self-pity, martyrdom, resentment, and the “I’ve done everything right” trap
🧍‍♀️ How victim consciousness feels in the body and why somatic awareness matters
🛁 The “warm bath” of victimhood and why it can feel so hard to leave
👶 Parenting, inner children, and the role of allowed emotional expression
🌱 Reclaiming power without bypassing grief, vulnerability, or reality
💫 Connect with Eva & Kyley
Sign up for Awakening with Eva for FREE
https://dogged-trailblazer-8821.kit.com/756fe8553d
Torchbearer Workshop with Kyley
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/torchbearer-workshop
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Book a discovery call with Eva
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
49 min
December 17, 2025 Be a Messy B*tch with Kyley and Eva
What does it really means to give yourself permission to be a messy b*tch—especially in the places where it feels hardest.

Sparked by Eva being back in Taiwan with her family, this conversation explores what happens when all your tools fly out the window, ten years of therapy evaporate at the front door, and you’re left face-to-face with old patterns, big feelings, and the relentless voice that says you should know better by now.

This episode is for anyone heading into family gatherings, relational landmines, or inner winters where things feel messy or unresolved and are looking to experiment with a different approach: letting yourself be imperfect, uncontained, and human.

What we cover in this episode:
✨ Giving yourself permission to be a “messy b*tch” without bypassing responsibility
🧠 The shame spiral of “I should know better” and why it’s so common in spiritual and personal development spaces
🏠 What happens to your nervous system when you’re back with family—and why your tools might temporarily disappear
🧩 How perfectionism often forms as protection against shame
🌀 The myth of a “perfect self” and the exhaustion of endless self-improvement
⚖️ Accountability vs. punishment: why guilt doesn’t actually help us change "
💔 The subtle ways we weaponize spiritual insights against ourselves
🔓 Releasing self-policing and noticing how inner violence fuels outer conflict
🌱 Why compassion creates more real change than criticism ever could
🕊️ Exploring innocence—not just in others, but in yourself
🔥 The fear and grief that arise when old identities start to dissolve
🤍 Touching unconditional love and why it can feel unfamiliar, fleeting, or even scary

💫 Connect with Eva & Kyley
Sign up for Awakening with Eva for FREE
https://dogged-trailblazer-8821.kit.com/756fe8553d
Torchbearer Workshop with Kyley
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/torchbearer-workshop
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Book a discovery call with Eva
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
1 hr 17 min
December 10, 2025 Ambitious but Spiritual with Kyley and Eva
Kyley and Eva explore the real roots of burnout, the difference between desire and proving, and why so many people feel torn between achievement and inner alignment. They unwind the cultural belief that you must choose between being connected to your soul and creating a successful life, and offer a grounded alternative: ambition becomes nourishing when it’s linked to desire instead of fear.

A listener asks:

Hello Universe. I'm feeling overwhelmed by hustle culture and the constant push to achieve more. I'm ambitious and I want a life that feels successful, but I also feel like I'm burning out. Can ambition and spirituality actually coexist, or am I trying to merge two things that don't fit? How do I find balance when one part of me wants to go big and another part just wants to breathe? Signed Ambitious, but Spiritual.

What we cover in this episode:
✨ Why burnout is a signal, not a personal failure
🌱 The difference between ambition and desire (and why one drains you while the other fuels you)
🌀 How proving-energy pulls us into chasing, urgency, and depletion
💭 Relearning how to listen to your desire when it’s buried under productivity culture
🔥 Why the stories we carry about success often trace back to capitalism, colonialism, and old survival strategies
💗 The emotional vulnerability of receiving, resting, and telling the truth about what you need
💫 How presence creates the kind of impact hustle alone never can
🛑 The role of safety: why rest, desire, and “being” can feel uncomfortable at first
🌿 What it looks like to let parts of your identity crumble so something truer can take shape
🌈 How clarity about who you are shifts your definition of success
🎢 Parenting, intuition, and the small everyday initiations that mirror the bigger spiritual journey
🌙 Why being comes before doing, and why everything changes when you let that become your internal compass
This episode is a conversation about returning to yourself, honouring the truth of what you want now, and letting being - not doing - become the source of your impact.
💫 Connect with Eva & Kyley
Inevitable: The Key to Your Business Breakthrough
Free Workshop happening Dec 5th
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/inevitable
Sign up for Awakening with Eva for FREE
https://dogged-trailblazer-8821.kit.com/756fe8553d
Torchbearer Workshop with Kyley
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/torchbearer-workshop
Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Book a discovery call with Eva
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
47 min
December 03, 2025 Intuition or Impatience? Making Big Decisions with Kyley and Eva
This week's listener asks a question about making a decision at a crossroad - both Kyley and Eva have danced around big changes more than once and share their advice and experience when weighing the complexities of money, safety, job transitions, entrepreneurship culture, and the often-invisible emotional terrain of taking a leap.

The question:
Hello Universe. I'm standing at a fork in the road and every day it feels harder to choose. I've been offered a promotion at my current job, more money and responsibility and the professional recognition.
I feel like I've always wanted. But if I'm being honest with myself, part of me feels hollow at the thought of saying yes. The other option is to finally take the leap that I've been dreaming about for years, quit my job, and start my own small business. It's exciting but terrifying. There's no guarantee of success, and I worry I might be walking away from stability just because I'm restless.
How can I tell whether my desire for change is intuition or just impatience? Signed standing at a crossroads?

What we cover in this episode:
🌿 How “hollow” feelings around an opportunity can be one of the clearest internal signals we get — and why it matters more than external logic
🔍 The real reason we convince ourselves we’re confused, even when part of us already knows the truth
💬 Why people often seek out “permission-givers,” and what that reveals about the decision they’ve already made
🔥 The myth of the linear, consequence-free leap — and how following your heart can be both right and really uncomfortable
💸 The complicated emotional world of money, safety, escape fantasies, and why entrepreneurship gets romanticized in unhelpful ways
⚖️ The difference between taking a leap that stretches you vs. taking a leap that overloads your nervous system
✨ How to discern intuition from impatience by listening for the quiet, steady pull beneath the fear
❤️ Why regret usually comes from not trying — not from trying and falling down along the way

This is a helpful listen for anyone circling a big decision, feeling both longing and dread, and wondering whether their desire for change is intuition, impatience, or something deeper calling from underneath the noise.

💫 Connect with Eva & Kyley
Inevitable: The Key to Your Business Breakthrough
Free Workshop happening Dec 5th
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/inevitable

Sign up for Awakening with Eva for FREE
https://dogged-trailblazer-8821.kit.com/756fe8553d

Torchbearer Workshop with Kyley
https://portal.kyleycaldwell.com/torchbearer-workshop

Eva's instagram: @iamevaliao
Book a discovery call with Eva
Kyley's Instagram: @kyleycaldwell
Kyley's free mini-course
46 min

About Hello Universe

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to the Hello Universe podcast. We’re your hosts, Kyley and Eva—two spiritual besties obsessed with weird, trippy conversations and stories that make us feel alive in our human mess. If you…