It's the Brian Lairr Show on WNYC.

I'm Amina Serna, a producer for the Brian Lairn show, filling in for Brian today.

Coming up on today's show, WNYC and Gothamist Transportation Reporter, Stephen Nesson,

will tell us about why the transit union is

suing the MTA and why the MTA is suing the federal government.

That suit has to do with funding for the 2nd Avenue subway extension.

Plus, later in the show, the journalist McKay Coppins reports back on the title of his new article in the

Atlantic, what he calls his year of degenerate gambling. In order to write about how online sports

betting has exploded in popularity, he did it himself. And I think it's safe to say it was

kind of a wild ride.

And to wrap today's show, we're going to talk about something our guest has dubbed friction maxing.

What she means is trying to sometimes do the hard thing instead of the tech-assisted easy thing.

For example, take the subway instead of taking a car. Stop using chat GPT for recipes.

She's got a lot more examples, and she'll explain why she thinks we should all try to do this.

But first, we begin with Iran. Now in its third week, the United States War in Iran has quickly spilled out over the Middle East.

According to Reuters, more than 2,000 people have been killed across 14 countries now. That includes 13 U.S. service members. And though the Trump administration has been putting forward mixed

messages on the planned duration of the war, saying it may end, quote, very soon, the Pentagon recently asked for more than $200 billion in a budget request to Congress.

One winner that's emerging in all of this might be Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A new assessment from The Financial Times estimates that Russia is earning an extra $150 million a day in oil revenue

since the United States lifted its sanctions on that country's oil exports a week ago. Joining us now to

break down the latest is Joshua Keating, senior correspondent at Vox covering foreign policy and

world news. Joshua, welcome back to WMIC. Hi, Amina. Great to be here. You write that Putin is the

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