{found in the margins}

Escape

This is a members-only episode of Found in the Margins, short bonus stories released on Patreon between full episodes.

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{show notes}

Take a look at your keyboard and you may be able to see the outline of your hands. The keys you use the most get worn down and the letters start to vanish. But up in the top left corner sits a key we only hammer in moments of frustration or panic: Escape.

In this episode:

  • Bob Bemer: the brilliant 1960s IBM programmer (and early Y2K whistleblower) who gave us the ESC key.
  • A Tower of Babel: Why early computers had trouble communicating, and how ASCII helped create a shared language.
  • ESC evolves: How the rise of Unicode and UTF-8 influenced the ESC key’s job.
  • The Apple Touch Bar Rebellion: Why Apple’s 2016 decision to replace the physical ESC key with a strip of glass sparked outrage.

Episode Music:

Additional Reading:

Bohn, D. (2019, November 13). Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro: Keyboard, screen, speakers, processor. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20962380/apples-16-inch-macbook-pro-keyboard-screen-speakers-processor

Gallagher, W. (2019, July 9). Comparing the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the 2017 Function Keys model. AppleInsider. https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/07/09/comparing-the-new-13-inch-macbook-pro-with-the-2017-function-keys-model

Kennedy, P. (2012, October 5). Who made that escape key? The New York Times Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/magazine/who-made-that-escape-key.html

Unicode Consortium. (n.d.). History of Unicode. Retrieved August 24, 2026, from https://www.unicode.org/history/