Brian Lair on WNYC for our last few minutes today, we're going to talk about the pros and cons of how much we're becoming a cashless society.

How cashless?

Well, for example, according to Capital One shopping, over 65 million Americans are Apple Pay users. But there's an article out in the New York

Times titled A Tap to Pay Society is leaving these New Yorkers behind. These New Yorkers include

street performers, food vendors, candy

sellers, the homeless, and others who are struggling, quoting from the article. So what happens

to those who rely on the donations and sales of more fortunate passers-by when carrying cash

becomes a novelty rather than a necessary part of life.

Our guest, Anna Koday, reporter covering design and culture for the real estate section of the Times.

We'll join us momentarily, but we do want to open the phones for you as well.

Have you been left behind in any way by our tap-to-pay society? Do you rely on other people carrying cash

to make your living? 212-433, WNIC, or if there's anything good you want to say about our

increasingly cashless society, 212-433-9692. Call or text right now. Anna, welcome to WNYC. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me. So tell us more about those left behind by Tap to Pay.

Well, a lot of these people, including, you know, the ones you just said, the homeless, food vendors, anyone selling things on the street or street musicians, they don't have access to banking in the same way that a lot of other people do. There's a lot of language barriers for some of these folks. And then there's just barriers to getting credit cards and apps and smartphones and all of those

things as well. So they really rely on cash. And when everyone else is not carrying around as much

cash, those opportunities for getting a spare dollar, just some spare change, are kind of diminished.

So can you talk about how this is affecting some of those folks' lives?

You did interview some, right?

I did. I did.

You know, some people told me that they're getting less cash

and that, you know, they have to spend longer hours out in the cold asking for change.

...