You’re About to See the Real AI Winners Stand Up

**Josh Brown** (0:00)
This can't be good, breathing this in, right?

**Jonathan Thomas** (0:01)
Oh, it's got to be awful.

**Josh Brown** (0:04)
So it's like carcinogens in the air.

**Jonathan Thomas** (0:06)
Yeah, I mean, it's Canadian wildfires, right?

**Josh Brown** (0:08)
What's up, Shoney?

**Sean Russo** (0:09)
What's up, John?

**Josh Brown** (0:10)
Is this going to be a regular thing now, do you think?

**Jonathan Thomas** (0:12)
No, I mean, I was going to say, we've had it for a few years now, I think.

**Sean Russo** (0:17)
I read something that the air quality today is, this same air quality happens 60 times a year in the 80s.

**Josh Brown** (0:24)
Really?

**Sean Russo** (0:25)
In New York. Does that sound right?

**Josh Brown** (0:30)
I don't remember this other than recently. I don't remember this as, what do I know? They could keep their...

**SPEAKER_4** (0:37)
That was just from people smoking.

**Sean Russo** (0:38)
Well, I think it was from the... I think it was from all the factories and whatnot.

**Josh Brown** (0:43)
Yeah, you guys are young, you didn't get on airplanes where people have lit cigarettes in the cabin.

**Sean Russo** (0:48)
I kind of wish I was a part of that.

**Josh Brown** (0:50)
No, you don't.

**Jonathan Thomas** (0:51)
And then you're in the non-smoking section, it was one foot away with no circulation.

**Josh Brown** (0:56)
And no smoking at this seat, at this seat you can.
We were very scientific. I have science questions for you today. Are you ready for those?

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:07)
Depending how deep they are, sure.

**Josh Brown** (1:09)
Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to ask you to run an experiment, but I was reading up on Stowers.

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:17)
Stowers, yeah.

**Josh Brown** (1:18)
I mean, I'm fascinated by this.

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:20)
It's really a unique story.

**Josh Brown** (1:22)
Yeah, I think it's one of the coolest things, and I can't wait to ask you all my questions. Do you come to New York a lot?

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:30)
Yeah, I probably get here half a dozen times a year, every other month or so.

**Josh Brown** (1:35)
Tell me about the golf tournament.

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:37)
The golf tournament. So, yeah, we just had that last week. The funny thing is that when people see me wearing an American Century shirt, I always want them to say, oh, you know.

**Josh Brown** (1:47)
Oh, like that golf tournament?

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:48)
No, I want them to say, I got all my money with you, everything. But the first thing they say is, I love your golf tournament.

**Josh Brown** (1:53)
So, when did it start? How long has that been running?

**Jonathan Thomas** (1:57)
So, it was originally started by Suzu 37 years ago. It was kind of a hot dog and potato chip event. We took it over 27 years ago. And when I first joined the company, I thought, oh my gosh, you know, a celebrity golf tournament made for TV.
You know, I went to it. We didn't have a lot of people there. We had, we actually hired people to stand in South Lake Tahoe and give out tickets to try to get people to show up.

**Josh Brown** (2:28)
Because nobody knew what it was.

**Jonathan Thomas** (2:29)
Right. Yeah, you fast forward now till this year, last several years, we've actually sold out on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We have people tunneling in. They bring shovels and they-

**Josh Brown** (2:42)
No way.

**Jonathan Thomas** (2:42)
There's a fence around the place. And because they're sold out, they would tunnel in. So now we have to put security around the perimeter at night.
So they don't do that. And we've had 85,000 people show up, five million viewers, four billion social media impressions, 17 billion press hits. It's turned into a gigantic-

**Josh Brown** (3:04)
Why do people want to be there so bad? You guys, you get great golfers.

**Jonathan Thomas** (3:08)
We get about 12 great golfers. And then we have 78 really fun people.

**Josh Brown** (3:14)
Celebrities.

**Jonathan Thomas** (3:14)
Yeah, celebrities. Well, the celebrities are also the golfers. There's about a dozen that can win it.
But there's another 78 folks that are legends. And whatever they did, they're best in their field. And the environment there is very intimate. Like, you know, you can go up and talk to anybody in a way that you can't do in a bigger place. The city is very space constrained. And so it just works out perfectly. And then the weather is... I don't know if there's a better place in July for weather. It's beautiful.

**Josh Brown** (3:46)