Believe in People

Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World

By: Charles Koch, Martin Luther King - foreword, Brian Hooks - contributor

Narrated by: Brian Hooks

Believe in People is a surprising take on how you can help tackle the really big problems in society–from one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs.

Is America on the verge of falling apart?

Millions of people are asking this question as our country celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Many people are arguing the only way to solve our country’s problems is to turn away from the principles in the Declaration—yet Charles Koch and Brian Hooks make the compelling case that more fully applying those principles is essential to uniting our country and creating a future where everyone can lead a life of meaning.

Koch, the chairman and co-CEO of one of America’s most successful companies, and Hooks, chairman and CEO of Stand Together, one of the country’s most dynamic philanthropic communities, offer a transformative and proven road map for solving America’s toughest challenges—from our divisive politics to generational poverty to a broken education system. They show listeners how to move beyond managing problems from the top-down and instead unlock human potential through bottom-up solutions.

With a new preface reflecting on how these ideas are more relevant today than when the book was first released, a new foreword by Martin Luther King III, and with deeply personal stories and compelling examples of real-life impact, Koch and Hooks sketch a path forward for America and all who call it home: Work with anyone to do right, empower others from the bottom-up, and build a society where everyone can rise.

No matter your background or beliefs, Believe in People challenges you to rally around the principles of empowerment in the Declaration of Independence—and make our country’s next 250 years even better than the last.

©2026 Charles Koch and Brian Hooks (P)2026 Storybrand Books