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The surprising history (and politics) of emoji, with Keith Houston
28 minutes Posted Jul 3, 2025 at 9:00 am.
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1096. This week, we look at the world of emoji with Keith Houston, author of "Face with Tears of Joy." He discusses the long history of emoji, from ancient origins to early computer character sets, and the formal process of proposing new emoji to the Unicode Consortium. We also look at how emoji can be blends of multiple characters and tell us more about cultural, generational, and political attitudes.

Keith Houston - Shadycharacters.co.uk

Keith's book - "Face with Tears of Joy"

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