diff --git a/src/ipylangchat/__init__.py b/src/ipylangchat/__init__.py
index 20205ba..0bb5af1 100644
--- a/src/ipylangchat/__init__.py
+++ b/src/ipylangchat/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import asyncio
 import importlib.metadata
 import pathlib
 
@@ -24,19 +25,80 @@ def __init__(self, chain, **kwargs):
         self.chain = chain
         self.chat_history = []
 
-        def handle_user_question(change):
+        def on_user_msg(change):
             self.chat_history.extend(
                 [
                     HumanMessage(content=self.user_msg),
                     AIMessage(content=self.ai_msg),
                 ]
             )
-            self.send({ "type": "create" })
+            self.send({"type": "create"})
             for chunk in chain.stream(
                 {"input": change.new, "chat_history": self.chat_history}
             ):
                 if "answer" in chunk:
                     self.send({"type": "append", "text": chunk["answer"]})
-            self.send({ "type": "finish" })
+            self.send({"type": "finish"})
 
-        self.observe(handle_user_question, names=["user_msg"])
+        self.observe(on_user_msg, names=["user_msg"])
+
+
+class AsyncChatUIWidget(anywidget.AnyWidget):
+    """
+    Chat UI widget that uses an event loop to process astream events.
+
+    Notes
+    -----
+    There doesn't seem to be a vetted solution for running a separate event
+    loop in Jupyter, since Jupyter is already running in its own event loop.
+
+    https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/66435
+
+    The workaround is to use the `nest_asyncio` package, which monkeypatches
+    asyncio to allow nested event loops but it is no longer maintained.
+
+    ```
+    import nest_asyncio
+    nest_asyncio.apply()
+    ```
+    """
+    _esm = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent / "static" / "widget.js"
+    _css = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent / "static" / "widget.css"
+    user_msg = traitlets.Unicode(sync=True)
+    ai_msg = traitlets.Unicode(sync=True)
+
+    def __init__(self, chain, version="v1", event_loop=None, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
+
+        self.chain = chain
+        self.chat_history = []
+        self.version = version
+        if event_loop is None:
+            self.event_loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+        else:
+            self.event_loop = event_loop
+
+        async def process_user_input(user_input):
+            async for event in chain.astream_events(
+                {"input": user_input, "chat_history": self.chat_history},
+                version=self.version,
+            ):
+                if (
+                    event["event"] == "on_chat_model_stream"
+                    and "seq:step:3" in event["tags"]  # TODO: find another way to filter for the output chat model
+                ):
+                    chunk = event["data"]["chunk"]
+                    self.send({"type": "append", "text": f"{chunk.content}"})
+
+        def on_user_msg(change):
+            self.chat_history.extend(
+                [
+                    HumanMessage(content=self.user_msg),
+                    AIMessage(content=self.ai_msg),
+                ]
+            )
+            self.send({"type": "create"})
+            self.event_loop.run_until_complete(process_user_input(change.new))
+            self.send({"type": "finish"})
+
+        self.observe(on_user_msg, names=["user_msg"])