Sunday Calls

In this episode, Fikemi has a friendship on her mind. She met this friend while living abroad, far from home and from everyone she usually leaned on, and within a week or two they had become each other’s whole support system. Now that she’s back in Nigeria, the distance has shown her something she didn’t expect: the closeness doesn’t feel the same on her side as it does on theirs.

Funmi responds with her own experience of friendships that drifted as life moved on, and a reminder that times and seasons change what we need from each other. A friendship built on shared need can be real and beautiful, and it can still need to be redesigned to adapt to life's changing seasons. She reminds Fikemi that “the bigger person wears the big pants"—in other words, the one who sees the situation more clearly is usually the one who has to start the hard conversation.

From there, the conversation turns to friendships that have changed form and only grown stronger. Funmi opens up about her decades-long sisterhood with Ada and Mimi, from meeting in university, a party she only attended because of a cute teddy bear (and the fine guy holding it) to late-night setups, and friendships with no half measures. Fikemi reflects on her own approach of collecting and connecting friends from every chapter of her life, including the birthday where her best friends captained competing trivia teams to prove who knew her best.

Whether you’re a parent watching your child navigate friendships you don’t fully understand, or an adult child trying to work out where a friendship stands, this one’s for you.

Credits

Podcast cover design: Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

Original theme music: Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

Hosted by: Funmi and Fikemi Aiyepeku

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]

No big topic this week, just a real Sunday call. Funmi and Fikemi sit down to catch up on the week. It turns out they each had a hard Friday, and each of them chose herself.

Fikemi goes first. She got dressed up for a night out, arrived on time, and heard nothing. Then she felt the irritation building. So instead of waiting to be let down a second time, she booked her ride home, took the best selfies of her life, and had her friends hype her up on FaceTime. Funmi is proud, and together they unpack what it means to protect your time and your peace without feeling guilty about "ruining the vibe."

Then it's Funmi's turn. Her scripture for September was "With joy we draw from the wells of salvation" (Isaiah 12:3), and the whole month has tested it, ending in a Friday evening meeting that shook her. She talks about choosing joy on purpose, even through tears, and about why growth only comes from the hard things.

Along the way there's an auntie who bought the aso-ebi herself to get them married off, a pounded yam bribe for church attendance, a new job, a trip to Cotonou, and a look ahead at friendship and a teaser for some upcoming very special guests.

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday!

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]

Credits

🎨 Podcast cover design by Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

🎵 Original theme music by Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

🎙️ Hosted by Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku

In this episode

Funmi and Fikemi try something new this week: instead of a planned topic, they pull three questions each from The And, a card game built to spark conversation, and see what surfaces when neither of them knows what's coming.

The questions take them from a tender childhood memory of Funmi's late mother, to Fikemi naming the one thing she'd actually change about her mother, to what makes each of them feel truly understood by the other. That last one opens into an unplanned but honest detour on being a "parentified" child — the difference between that and being enmeshed, and how growing up closely tied to the inner workings of the family shaped Fikemi's instinct to read her mother's moods and hold the peace at family gatherings.

It's something different—no story arc, no big theme, just two people answering whatever the deck put in front of them That same openness carries through the rest of the episode: Funmi gets asked to describe how the world sees her in five words (strong, full of life, nurturing, curious, otherworldly), the two of them land on a shared definition of true love as attention and commitment without keeping score, and Fikemi ends the game with an ask of her own—for the kind of "soft accountability" that gets her the last 10% of the way to done. It's a lighter format, but it still shows what an honest, raw conversation between a child and their parent can sound like when neither of them has had time to prepare an answer.

Card game played: The {And}

Podcast episode referenced: Family of Origin Roles Series: The Parentified Child

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday!

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]

Credits

🎨 Podcast cover design by Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

🎵 Original theme music by Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

🎙️ Hosted by Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku

In this episode, Funmi walks through the moments that made her realize her baby girl was starting to grow up. She recounts three memories that build from an offhand question in the car to one long weekend that really tested how far her trust would stretch.

Starting from a curious "are you having any crushes?" to boarding-house visiting days, watching boys orbit her daughter from a distance, Funmi began choosing to trust rather than interrogate. This peaks in South Africa, at Fikemi's graduation when the new graduate announces she isn't flying home with her parents—she's staying longer to join a co-ed Airbnb with friends, sharing a room with a guy, and living out a promise she made on the spot: "anything I can't tell you, I won't do."

Funmi and Fikemi walk back through that conversation from both sides — Funmi's racing heart and the choice not to catastrophize, Fikemi's own coming-of-age weekend of firsts—and land on what made it work. Trust extended became trust returned, and a daughter who never felt she had to lie built her own inner compass instead of borrowing her mother's rules. They also open up a new distinction for listeners: the difference between secrecy, which erodes trust, and privacy, which is just a normal part of growing into your own person.

If you're a parent trying to figure out how to loosen your grip without losing your peace, or an adult child trying to explain to your parents that privacy isn't the same as hiding something, this one's for you.

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday!

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]


Credits

🎨 Podcast cover design by Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

🎵 Original theme music by Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

🎙️ Hosted by Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku

Funmi and Fikemi came into this episode with disagreements prepared, spiritual, emotional, and, fine, a little bit about mini skirts. But their favourite way to disagree has never been about winning the argument—it's hearing each other out earnestly, even when they land on genuinely different views.

The biggest one: Fikemi's relationship with God doesn't look like her mother's, and she finally explains why. They dig into what it means to grow up being trained to "listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit" from age twelve, and what happens when that training becomes almost indistinguishable from simply listening to yourself. Fikemi walks through the framework she's built since: Christianity less as a final destination and more as the safe container that first taught her what goodness and peace feel like. Funmi responds with her own evolution in understanding, and the two land somewhere neither expected: more agreement than disagreement and a whole lot more understanding.

Whether you've got a version of these same arguments running with your own parent or child, or you're just curious what it looks like to disagree well without losing each other, this one's for you.

Credits

• Podcast cover design: Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)
• Original theme music: Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)
• Hosted by: Funmi & Fikemi Aiyepeku

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday

• Instagram: @sundaycallspod
• TikTok: @sundaycallspod
• Email: [email protected]

Crushes, boyfriends, dating apps, and letters versus Instagram follows — Funmi and Fikemi turn their "25 then vs. 25 now" conversation toward love.

Funmi looks back on secondary school crushes, being chased (literally) at university, and a courtship that moved from a roadside tire change to marriage — all without ever discussing boyfriends with her own parents. Fikemi unpacks what dating looks like now: apps that widen the pool to the whole world, the rise of "situationships" and undefined talking stages, and the pressure on men to show up with real emotional intelligence, not just as providers.

They get into the fickleness of modern dating, the illusion of choice, why boldness in pursuit seems to have faded, and whether Gen Z is simply younger mentally at 25 than previous generations were. They also talk candidly about what young men need to unlearn — starting with being told to "man up" instead of being allowed to feel.

If you've ever wondered whether dating has actually changed or just changed shape, or you're trying to understand your kid's love life through a very different lens than your own, this one's for you.

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday!

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]

Credits

🎨 Podcast cover design by Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance).

🎵 Original theme music by Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify).

🎙️ Hosted by Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku.

At 25, Funmi was married, independent, and building a life. At 25, Fikemi is navigating a world that keeps moving in ten directions at once. Same age. Completely different context.

In this episode, Funmi and Fikemi sit down to compare notes on what being 25 actually looked like — then and now. They get into the economic realities facing young adults today, the weight of a hyper-connected world, the pressure children feel when their parents' achievements become an unspoken measuring stick, and why telling your kid "at your age, I had already..." might be doing more damage than you think. They also explore what Gen Z actually needs when they're struggling — and why the answer is usually not a pep talk — the difference between having no plan and needing space to figure one out, and how parents and adult children can have honest conversations about the future without someone walking away feeling misunderstood.

If you've ever felt like you were falling behind a timeline that was never meant for you, or if you're a parent trying to understand why your child's young adult years look so different from yours, this one's for you.

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday!

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]

Credits

🎨 Podcast cover design by Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

🎵 Original theme music by Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

🎙️ Hosted by Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku

After nearly eight years of living away from home full-time, Fikemi moves back in with her family in Lagos—and quickly realizes that coming home isn't as simple as unpacking a suitcase.

In this episode, Funmi and Fikemi unpack the emotional reality of living together again as adults: the pressure to "fit back in," navigating independence under your parents' roof, adjusting to a home that has changed while you've been away, and learning to give yourself (and each other) grace through the transition.

They also explore the tension many young adults experience when returning home after living abroad, the evolving role of parents as their children grow into adulthood, and why humility, curiosity, and honest conversations matter more than control.

Whether you've ever dreaded going home, struggled to reconnect with your parents, or wondered how families can stay close through life's changes, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday!

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]

Credits

🎨 Podcast cover design by Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

🎵 Original theme music by Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

📝 Article referenced: Dear African Abroad: Home is NOT Waiting For You

🎙️ Hosted by Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku

Welcome to Sunday Calls.

In this first episode, we're sharing who we are, how our relationship has evolved over the years, and why we felt called to create a space for honest conversations between Nigerian parents and their children. We talk about the heart behind Sunday Calls, what listeners can expect in future episodes, and our hope that this podcast encourages more meaningful conversations in homes everywhere.

Whether you're a parent, a son or daughter, or simply someone navigating family relationships, we're so glad you're here.

Welcome to the conversation.

Credits

Podcast cover design: Isabella Reali (reali_design on Instagram and Behance)

Original theme music: Dubem Nweke (@alwaysbeez on Instagram & Bee-Z on Spotify)

Hosted by: Fikemi & Funmi Aiyepeku

Connect with Sunday Calls

Follow the show for new episodes every other Sunday

Instagram: @sundaycallspod

TikTok: @sundaycallspod

Email: [email protected]