# If trees could speak

- Institution: TED
- Department: Countdown
- Speaker: Elif Shafak
- Year: 2020
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Earth and environment, Literature and writing
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_if_trees_could_speak)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

How do we tell stories of humanity and nature at a time when our planet is burning? Novelist Elif Shafak invites us to listen to the trees, whose experience of time, stillness and impermanence is utterly different from our own. "Hidden inside \[their\] story is the past and the future of humanity," she says.

## Lectures

1. [If trees could speak](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/elif_shafak_if_trees_could_speak/870bf1b87556), 4 min (TED's player)