You are listening to The Friday Five here on the Agent Survival Guide podcast.I'm your host, Sarah Ruppell, and this is our weekly list of five things you should know about.And this week, that is not the election or anything election related.
It is way too soon for that.Too many hot takes that may or may not pan out.So instead, We've got some other headlines as well as some fun seasonal things to discuss.
Coming in at number five this week, as we are all eagerly awaiting our Spotify rapt, Spotify recently announced the ability for users to customize cover art on playlists they create.
And that reminded me that I haven't mentioned our Spotify playlists in a very long time here on the podcast. But we do have them, we keep them updated and we'll be linking to them in the episode notes.
If you want to customize your own playlists, you can certainly do that. Previously, the most you could do was upload an image or create a collage of images.
You can still upload your own image, but now you can add different design elements, like text with a variety of fonts, colors, effects, gradients, and exclusive stickers from a handful of artists.
I went in and updated our playlist art and created some new playlists, so if you'd like to check those out, they will be linked in the episode notes.One thing I love about playlists on Spotify, I have a habit of following way too many podcasts
And creating a playlist with standalone episodes or an arc of episodes helps me to keep tabs on what I want to listen to.And then also, I don't know about you, but I have a few dead spots on my commute where the internet just refuses to work.
Could just be a Pennsylvania thing, I'm not sure, but by downloading those playlists, I can make sure I'm not trying to hit play while I'm in those dead zones.
Moving along to number four, possibly the most brilliant use of AI that I have yet to read about, and it might make me an old, but I'm a parent of an almost teenager, so that's fine with me.
A few weeks back, we talked about the changes Instagram made to teenage accounts and the attempt to shift oversight to parents rather than the meta-owned company.This new AI tool is the next step in that process.
Instagram plans to use AI to make sure that teenagers aren't lying about their age.
It will do this by analyzing the accounts followed and content interactions, while also flagging accounts using the same email address for multiple accounts with different birthdays.
And speaking of birthdays, that is one of the things the adult classifier will look for.Birthday wishes in bulk on a day that does not match the birth date on record with Instagram.
And once that teen label is put on the account, a parent will have to give the authorization to remove those restrictions.The AI tool is set to launch in early 2025 on Instagram.
Number three, speaking of Instagram, if you follow me there, you might have noticed that I posted the holiday decor from my cubicle back on November 1st.
This year's theme is Pink Christmas, complete with pink Christmas trees, disco balls, glitter, and, of course, pink string lights.
And joining me in that holiday spirit, so many stores are already playing Christmas music, and both Starbucks and Dunkin' have released their seasonal holiday menus.
It seems very early for this, but I think that's just because it's been unseasonably warm around here.We keep vacillating between summer and fall weather, so it feels weird to be talking about the holidays, but here we are.
We started with Dunkin' last time, so this time we will start with Starbucks.They've been in the news quite a bit, most recently with their new CEO announcing changes to the menu.
Those changes coincided with the new holiday menu that launched yesterday.If you were a fan of the olive oil infused oleo coffees, those have been removed from the menu.So possibly sad news there.
But if you like alternative milks, you'll no longer have to pay extra for those, so perhaps some exciting news there.
Returning holiday favorites at Starbucks this year include Peppermint Mocha, the Caramel Brulee Latte, the Chestnut Praline Latte, the Iced Sugar Cookie Oat Latte, and the Iced Gingerbread Oat Chai.
Starbucks is also bringing back holiday cold foams, so if you loved the peppermint chocolate cream, sugar cookie cream, chestnut praline, or caramel brulee cold foams, those are all coming back.
And then returning food favorites include the cranberry bliss bar and the sugar plum cheese danish.
One of the initiatives new CEO Brian Nickel outlined in his plans for the Seattle Coffee Company, pare down the menu so baristas are not constantly slammed with orders.That could be why there were no new coffee drinks announced this year.
Starbucks did come out with three new refreshers, which are variations on their Cranberry flavor, which, quote,
captures the essence of the season with flavors of sweet orange, tart cranberry, and warm spices, including notes of cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg, shaken with ice, water, and real cranberries.
Now that comes in regular refresher form, with lemonade, and mixed with coconut for the Cran-Mary drink.The Salted Pecan Cream Cold Foam will hang around for the holiday season that came out back in the fall,
And there's a new gingerbread cream cold foam that I have already tried.I love the Starbucks gingerbread-flavored ground coffee, so I had high hopes for the cold foam and I was not disappointed.
Now I just need them to make that gingerbread-flavored coffee in stores. New food items include a turkey sage danish, a dark toffee bundt cake, a penguin cookie, and a snowman cake pop.New holiday cups were also released this week.
My husband so kindly picked me up one of the glittery color-changing cups. so look for that on my Instagram feed coming soon.And as far as Red Cup Day, that is apparently on the books for next Thursday, November 14th.
Moving on to the Dunkin' holiday menu, which has been out since November 1st.Returning favorites include the Peppermint Mocha Signature Latte, Toasted White Chocolate Signature Latte, which is one of Tina's favorites,
White Hazelnut Bark Coffee, Cookie Butter Cold Brew, and the Cookie Butter Donut. The Cookie Butter Cold Brew is fantastic.I have had it before, but I will give some advice.
If they ask for customizations on it, like if you want sugar or cream, do not say yes.I made the mistake of that when I got one for the first time, and it was definitely a barista who was new and did not know how to make the drink.
When I had it the second time, it was made correctly, it tasted so much better, and I believe it contained about a bag of sugar less than the first one.
There is a new drink this year, the Holiday Cookie Signature Latte, which has, quote, notes of buttery cookie and toasted almond, end quote.
That is made to pair nicely with the new almond croissant, but probably not the new hash brown brisket scramble bowl.
And on Wednesdays from now through Christmas Day, Dunkin' Rewards members get a free classic donut with the purchase of any beverage.Not a bad deal if you're on the go on a Wednesday during the holiday season.
Number two, let's talk about streaming picks for November because it's been a little while since we've done that. Currently in my house, we have started watching Manifest, which thankfully has a decent amount of episodes and it has an ending.
Nothing more frustrating than discovering a great show that was cancelled after one season. Now, beyond that, I am looking forward to the festive movies of the season.
A lot of holiday favorites have already arrived, like A Christmas Story, Elf, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and The Polar Express on Max.
On Hulu, Christmas with the Kranks and the 1993 version of Nutcracker have made it into my watching queue.
New to streaming on Netflix, probably one of the few things that is not holiday-related this time around, Outer Banks Season 4, Part 2 came out yesterday.So that's another five episodes to round out the full fourth season.
On Max, November 14th marks the debut of the Harry Potter Yule Log and season one of Harry Potter Wizards of Baking, which is hosted by James and Oliver Phelps, the twin brothers who played Fred and George Weasley in the series.
Very excited to see which foods and themes they choose to recreate on that cooking show.
And as far as Hulu goes, the day before Thanksgiving they will have Elf, Four Christmases, Fred Claus, Jack Frost, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and The Polar Express.So a little crossover there.
Many of those titles are also available on Macs. Not much on Disney Plus this time around, just a Mary Poppins special on November 29th that looks interesting, along with the sing-along version of the latest Descendants movie.
Now, of course, these are just my selections.We will have a link to the full list of streaming titles for November in the episode notes. And at number one this week, we are focusing on a report that was just released from our friends at KFF.
And yes, it does include fresh statistics for those presentations of yours.Always love highlighting when these reports come out.And this time around, we are focusing on the 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period.
Some of the information in this report we've already rehashed in other episodes, but there are some downloadable tables, statistics, and a link to a feature that I think agents will find very helpful.
So we'll start off with statistics, and these come from CMS.A total of 21.4 million Americans are currently enrolled in ACA Marketplace coverage.
19.7 million of them are receiving enhanced subsidies, Advanced Premium Tax Credits, or APTCs as they're called.And then 1.7 million ACA Marketplace enrollees are not lowering the cost of their coverage with APTCs.
In the report, there's a table showing 10 years of subsidy utilization enrollment data.That is a nice visual of enrollment that can be downloaded and added in to your presentations.
And probably good to mention that coverage year 2025 could possibly be the last year for those enhanced subsidies put in place by the American Rescue Plan Act and then extended through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Another reminder I will mention here, the Medicaid unwinding special enrollment period ends on November 30, 2024.And now let's talk about that helpful feature from KFF.
They have created a report builder that lets users view, compare, and download statistical data by state across a range of health information.
For example, I created a report comparing Pennsylvania and Texas ACA data to get a comparison of uninsured rates for people up to age 64, non-elderly enrollees with Medicaid under the age of 64, and those with employer coverage under the age of 64.
The stats are from the most recent enrollment data available from coverage year 2023, and there is a lot to choose from.The indicators I looked at were from the broader health coverage category.
Other categories available to select include Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP, private insurance and marketplaces, demographics, providers, access to care, women's health, disparities, economic measures, health status, mental health and substances use, COVID-19, and health costs.
We will have the link to that tool in our episode notes, as well as the report we just mentioned.And as an added bonus, KFF's health insurance marketplace calculator. So be sure to check out the episode notes.
And that's all we've got for this week's installment.Thank you so much for listening.I hope you have a great weekend.Stay healthy and stay safe out there, and we will see you next week.
The Agent Survival Guide podcast is a production of Ritter Insurance Marketing, an integrity company.This episode was written and produced by me, Sarah Ruppell.Script editing and fact check by Tina Lamoureux.Podcast design by Urban Rivera.
Artwork by Vivian Zhao.Follow along with us wherever you like to listen.
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