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Dec 28, 2017

12/28/2017: A cashless China

Trillions of dollars in payments each year occur via mobile apps like Alipay in China, where the cashless society of the future is here. You can even pay for your fried chicken with facial recognition technology. We’re eschewing conventional finance rules in the U.S., too, or at least Chelsea Fagan is. She talks to Adrienne Hill about her new book, “The Financial Diet,” which offers personal finance advice a little differently than we’re used to. Plus, a look back at the year’s energy news, how one lab researching serious infectious diseases is expanding to keep up with the increasing rate of outbreaks, and a first-hand account of the invention of the digital camera.

A driver uses his smartphone to pay the highway toll by way of Alipay, an app of Alibaba's online payment service, at Pengbu toll station on the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province on September 21, 2016.
A driver uses his smartphone to pay the highway toll by way of Alipay, an app of Alibaba's online payment service, at Pengbu toll station on the Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province on September 21, 2016.
STR/AFP/Getty Images

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Segments From This Episode

Trillions of dollars in payments each year occur via mobile apps like Alipay in China, where the cashless society of the future is here. You can even pay for your fried chicken with facial recognition technology. We’re eschewing conventional finance rules in the U.S., too, or at least Chelsea Fagan is. She talks to Adrienne Hill about her new book, “The Financial Diet,” which offers personal finance advice a little differently than we’re used to. Plus, a look back at the year’s energy news, how one lab researching serious infectious diseases is expanding to keep up with the increasing rate of outbreaks, and a first-hand account of the invention of the digital camera.