Inspiring Conversations with Sonata Allison of The Parallel Podcast

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sonata Allison.

Hi Sonata, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I took a human sexuality class at my christian university because it was apart of my psychology major in undergrad and it was such a comprehensive view of sexuality. We spoke about everything from in-depth anatomy of the female and male body to falling in love and internet relationships. I was so grateful that the conversations were actually happening in Christian settings that I had to share with my roommates after every class. I always knew I wanted to share this information in some medium and after I finished my master’s in marriage and family counseling and a pandemic, The Parallel was created.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I just told myself when starting the podcast, If I’m going to do this, im going to do it well. And that meant money leaving my bank account. I like to do everything with excellence so I did a lot of research and paid for software and equipment and for whatever reason the Lord will wake me up at five am to write some of the episodes so that’s been fun too. I do worry about providing content sometimes and I’ve definitely thought about stopping. Honestly, my computer and the software I use causes me more challenges than my audience will ever know. Ive spent a lot of time deleting stuff off my computer to make space, speaking to apple chat, and I’m sure the software support workers for the software I use for the interviews know me on a first name basis, shout out to Jason, but the Lord always gives me new ideas and I’ve been able to interview some cool people and have conversations with fans of the podcast. I even got to get some podcast advice from Travel Chappell who I believe is one of the top 100 podcasters on apple podcasts, if I’m not mistaken. So I’m definitely not sure what the future holds but I feel like I’m being obedient in providing Christians with this information, so I’m going to keep going.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Parallel Podcast?
The Parallel is a Christian Sexuality podcast that, much like the human sexuality class I took in undergrad, talks about everything from the importance of knowing your anatomy to relationships and attachment styles. I think the fact that my podcast incorporates humor, scripture, and psychology sets it apart because I believe they all play a part in sexuality but I dont really hear any podcasts that included it all. Being that I am a Christian, a marriage and family therapist, and hilarious I thought I could create a space to talk about things that churches don’t usual make space for. In the future I plan to do christian sexuality coaching, potentially create a course to help create safe spaces within churches and communities for these conversations, and get some merchandise out there as well.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The advice I would give is to be willing to take the risk. At one point in my life, I just decided that I never want to have more years behind me than ahead of me and look back and have a lot of regrets because I let fear make decisions for me. So, just do your research and try something. If you fail, at least you really know it wasn’t for you instead of never trying and always having that “what if”. We always have new ideas and new things to pursue so never let the fear of failure cripple you.

Contact Info:

• Email: sonata.allison@gmail.com
• Instagram: @theparallelpod
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theparallelpod
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvphOgFC60T4kBS-lNNDXiA
• Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdAmQhDS/