Q&A With WYPR’s Tom Hall, Emcee, Are You Smarter Than a BCP Student?

It’s no secret that Tom Hall is great with a microphone. For ten years, he’s been the host of Midday, WYPR’s Edward R. Murrow Award-winning program on what matters most to Maryland.  

On April 30, 2026, Mr. Hall takes the mic for the third year in a row as emcee for Baltimore Curriculum Project’s (BCP) annual gala, “Are You Smarter Than a BCP Student?” This quiz-show style event, based on the BCP curriculum, matches a celebrity panel against two teams of BCP students: 5th graders and 8th graders. 

This year is also a very lucky 13th year for the “Are You Smarter Than a BCP Student?” gala. It’s BCP’s 30th anniversary, and the gala, held this year at the Maryland Science Center, will include the premiere of a BCP short documentary and special awards.

A big part of the celebration is Mr. Hall’s lively banter. A master of hundreds of WYPR interviews in his 23-year radio broadcasting career and an enthusiastic host, emcee, or moderator for many community events, his turn as BCP’s master of ceremonies is special. Last September, Mr. Hall moderated a panel following the premiere of “Restorative Practices Make Strong Schools,” a short documentary that featured two BCP schools, City Springs Elementary/Middle School and Hampstead Hill Academy, and was sponsored/produced by Maryland’s Voices for Restorative Schools.

We talked with him about why this event is important to him, about his storied career, and what’s next.  

This is your third year emceeing this event. What makes the BCP “Are You Smarter Than a BCP Student? different from your other community events?

I’ve been doing community events in Baltimore as the emcee or a speaker of some sort for 44 years. This is clearly an event with one with the most enthusiastic crowds of anything [I’ve seen.] It’s because [Are You Smarter] has a lot of kids and teachers, and we have great spirit among the BCP people. The excitement, the level of interest and acclaim is unparalleled. 

Are you smarter than a BCP student?

I have found out over the last two years that I am nowhere close to as smart as a BCP student. It has reinforced my original opinion about my degree of smartness and these kids. They are terrific, and so are the adult contestants. I’m glad I’m emceeing and not trying to answer the questions. They’re very difficult questions. 

Do you have any favorite moments from past years?

That’s a tough one, but I do enjoy seeing the adults squirm. It’s kind of fun. And they do a lot more squirming than the kids. The kids get the questions, they put their heads down, confer, put their nose to the grindstone, and get an answer. Seeing adults squirming in general is something that I’ll always remember.

You’ve interviewed many experts, national and regional, on a range of pressing topics. What do you think are some of the most pressing issues about Baltimore’s public education system?

I’ve been the host of Midday for ten years and was host of other programs over a 23-year period at WYPR. I have covered education a lot, including BCP, in particular their work in their schools with Restorative Practices. 

I think public education is certainly crucial to the success of any community. Baltimore has had a rough go of it, but I think we’ve had in Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, a very good, very gifted leader. She’s been the leader longer than almost any other person who’s had that position, but she would be the first to tell you that within the overall system in the city of Baltimore, the improvements have been incremental. They have not been dramatic. She would certainly like to see them be more dramatic and more readily identifiable as really making big progress.

Dr. Santelises has been on Midday many times, and we’ve talked about the hard questions that confront her, but I think BCP is a particularly great example of some of the solutions that need to be employed system-wide. 

In your opinion, how has BCP helped to address Baltimore’s challenges with public education over the past three decades?

When you talk about creating good culture in schools, the six BCP schools have wonderful culture.The relationships among the teaching staff, the administrative staff, and the students and their families are across the board very positive and very good. The quality of the teaching is certainly unquestioned. Years ago, I had an education expert affiliated with BCP that there’s no such thing as a good school with a bad principal, and he’s right about that. I think the leadership of the BCP schools deserve a big shout-out and kudos.There’s also no such thing as a good principal in a bad school.

Principals and the leadership really do matter. BCP is fortunate to have identified some excellent leaders and teachers who are doing a great job. Teaching is tough. I taught high school for one year, my first year out of college, and for years it’s been far and away the hardest job I’ve ever had. It’s a complicated, complex endeavor. 

To find people who are not only dedicated enough to enter into that complexity, but also talented and gifted enough to be able to really make progress is something special. We need to recognize just how special BCP is and what a paradigm they can be for other systems around the country and for schools in our own communities.

Our school system and our city has a number of challenges, and it’s easy to be preoccupied with the things that need to change, need to be improved, and need to get better. But as we do that, we also have to celebrate the successes that we have. And BCP is a perfect exemplar of a great and wonderful success. 

For three decades, BCP has been educating wonderful kids and giving them the boost and the start that they need in their lives. BCP has been doing it with love and compassion and grace and imagination that is just awe inspiring. There’s a lot of good news coming out of the Baltimore Public School System, and BCP is a big part of the good news that we can celebrate.

What have you learned from talking to thousands of people from all walks of life?

Number one, it’s important to listen and pay attention to everybody, that it is not just people of fame and renown who deserve to be listened to, but people from all walks of life, people from all stations of life, all economic circumstances. There is something to learn from absolutely everybody. The stories that people bring to shows like mine are precious and need to be cherished and elevated. 

We’ve been very, very blessed over these years on Midday to hear great stories from great people from all around the world. It matters what those stories are, and it matters how those people bring those stories to us. We’ve always tried to make sure that we are hearing from a large swath of people, from our neighbors in our community and experts outside of our community.

At Midday, we hear from artists, elected officials, and people who aspire to be elected officials. We hear from medical people, religious people, and people who study race and the dynamics of our society and how it is often broken down by these sort of interest group designations by race and gender and age and sex and whatnot. It’s important that we hear all of the perspectives so that we can be informed, know who and why and what we’re voting for, and that we can hold the people we do vote for accountable, given the enormity of some of the challenges that we face. 

But not just on a political level, it’s on a human level, I think it’s just really important to hear what people have to say, to listen to them closely, compassionately, and humbly. There’s always something to learn, and I learn something every single day in this journey.

What advice would you give the BCP students you’ve met at “Are You Smarter Than a BCP Student?” about sharing their story and their voice?

I would say to make sure that their story gets out, that their voice is heard. Don’t let anybody tell you that, ‘Oh, you’re just a kid. We don’t care.’ Don’t let anybody tell you that there are other voices that are more important than theirs. There’s nobody’s voice who is more important than your own. And you should inform that voice and inform those opinions with erudition and the things you’ve learned from other people, both kids and adults. I would tell them to never be convinced by anybody because there will be people who will try to convince you that you don’t deserve to be heard. That’s simply not true. You absolutely do deserve to be heard, and you have to make sure that you are heard.

You are transitioning from Midday host to WYPR part-time senior news analyst. What will you be doing in that new role?

We haven’t worked out all of the details of that, but I hope to be giving commentary and some editorials on WYPR and hosting some special events and programs. I will likely be the WYPR anchor for election coverage and analyst about the political situation. We’re in an election year, so I’ll be doing a number of different things. 

I’m just simply stepping away from a full-time, five-day-a-week obligation to book shows and learn about different topics every day. As much fun as that has been, I think it’s time for a different voice and a different person’s perspective to be given the very wonderful and rare opportunity that I’ve been given. And I’m really grateful for it. I’m grateful for all the listeners we have who’ve made it possible for it to continue. I look forward to being fully supportive of whoever they hire to succeed me.

There are some scholarly pursuits that I think I will be involved in from think tanks to volunteer work in the education space. There are always things to explore musically. I’m not working as a musician anymore, but it doesn’t mean that music is far from my life. 

You are also host for WYPR’s What Are You Reading? What are you reading right now?

As always, the things I’m reading are kind of all over the map and a lot of fun. 

• I just finished a wonderful biography of Steven Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy (Yale University Press, March 2026) by Daniel Okrent., who is terrific. It’s a fascinating study of a very fascinating guy. 
• I have a new novel to read by Elizabeth Strout,  The Things We Never Say, scheduled for release on May 5, 2026. She is a wonderful author who has been on the show many times. I just received an advanced copy and am looking forward to reading that. I love her fiction. 
• I am reading Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises by Erica Green and Katie Benner of The New York Times. Erica is now a White House correspondent. 
• I just finished a wonderful book by a professor at Johns Hopkins named Anna Harwell Celenze entitled On the Record: Music that Changed America. She writes about music through American history and how certain songs and pieces of music had a great political and societal impact on the evolution of America. On March 24, we did an event together at the Enoch Pratt Library, and I’m going to have her on the show. 

Thanks, Tom, for being such a joyful part of BCP’s story! 

BE PART OF THIS YEAR’S 30th ANNIVERSARY GALA