Composing the Cosmos: Scoring The Story of Everything

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Society & Culture, Philosophy, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One thing that makes the new documentary film The Story of Everything so stunning is the inspired musical score written for it. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes composer, producer, and arranger Hannah Parrott to discuss her experiencing of putting the cosmos to music, from the farthest galaxies to the inner recesses of the cell. The movie, showing in theaters for one week only (April 30 - May 6, 2026) is a cinematic exploration of the cosmos that unpacks three scientific discoveries of the last century that reveal mind and purpose behind the universe. In this conversation, Hannah explains why she loves the medium of film music and gives us a glimpse into her process of creating music for The Story of Everything. She says music can bypass analytical thinking to reach a viewer's emotional core. She also values that the music she writes is able to work together with the visuals to create a lasting impression: "And it's just this overload of experiencing the story on every visceral level you can," Hannah notes. "And I think music is a huge part of that and works in tandem as this choir of voices telling the same story."

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0:00.0	A lot of my job is looking at visuals and responding through music and writing something
0:07.4	that feels cohesive and complementary to what you're seeing. And so when you have visuals that are
0:14.2	galaxies or, you know, the microcosm of the cell, or it's just so inspiring. It's hard not to want to write
0:23.4	the best, most complimentary music to that. ID, the Future, a podcast about evolution and
0:30.7	intelligent design. Welcome to ID the Future. I'm your host, Andrew McDermott. Today my guest is composer, producer, and
0:39.1	arranger Hannah Parrott to discuss her musical score for the new film The Story of Everything.
0:45.3	The movie is a cinematic exploration of the cosmos that unpacks three scientific discoveries
0:50.6	of the last century that reveal mind and purpose behind the universe.
0:55.5	A rising force in the industry, Hannah has partnered with studios such as DreamWorks, HBO,
1:01.0	Amazon, Netflix, National Geographic, and the BBC. Some of Hannah's most notable work includes
1:07.1	Amazon's shelter, DreamWorks, the Crudes Family Tree, National Geographic, The Flood,
1:13.4	and Cypher Studios record-breaking theatrical documentary after death. Anna also works extensively
1:19.7	with independent filmmakers, debuting work at the Cannes Film Festival, American Pavilion,
1:25.3	South by Southwest, and the Los Angeles Film Festival.
1:29.1	Anna, it's a pleasure to have you on I Do the Future.
1:31.3	Thanks for having me.
1:33.4	Absolutely.
1:34.4	Welcome.
1:34.9	Well, before we chat, there may be some watching or listening who don't know about this
1:39.1	story of everything movie that's about to hit theaters.
1:41.7	So I'm going to play the 60-second trailer just to give you a little
1:45.8	taste of what's to come. Here's that now.
	...

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