Ohio State graduation speaker says he took drugs to write speech

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The person selected to speak at Ohio State University’s commencement ceremony for its spring graduates didn’t mince details on how he made the controversial script.

Days before the Sunday ceremony, OSU’s chosen speaker Chris Pan said on LinkedIn that he had taken the psychedelic drug ayahuasca to write his first drafts.

“Got some help from AI (Ayahuasca Intelligence) this week to write my commencement speech for 60,000 grads and family members at Ohio State University next Sunday,” Pan wrote. “Tried ChatGPT but wasn’t that good.”

Pan was billed as a “social entrepreneur, musician and inspirational speaker” on the commencement’s program. But his speech and an on-stage demonstration with OSU President Ted Carter drew boos from the audience, audible in the university’s livestream, as Pan tried to encourage graduates and attendees to buy cryptocurrency.

“Saving is not enough because inflation exploded after the pandemic, which is why everything got so expensive … I see Bitcoin as a very misunderstood asset class,” Pan said. “It is decentralized and finite, which means no government can print more at will.”

It was part of Pan’s pitch for investing, which he said was prevented by internal factors, rather than external like student debt or market conditions.

“The mechanics of investing are actually easy, but it comes down to mindset,” Pan said. “The most common barriers are fear, laziness and closed-mindedness.”

Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson declined to comment on Pan’s mention of Bitcoin but clarified that the university does not approve its chosen speaker’s speeches before the ceremony. When asked about Pan’s comments about using psychedelic drugs to create the speech, Johnson said staff viewed his draft versions.

The university’s own coverage of the commencement also made no mention of the crypto commentary. Instead, it focused on other parts of his speech, like his encouragement of civility in society.

“We cannot learn forgiveness if no one has wronged us, compassion without suffering, and resilience without setbacks,” Pan said during the commencement speech. “We cannot learn tolerance without differing perspectives.”

Johnson said university commencement speakers are chosen after a panel of Ohio State students, faculty and staff reviews nominations from the OSU community. The panel then recommends options based on the candidates’ public speaking skills, message relevance, name recognition and core values consistent with those of the university.

Pan graduated from Ohio State in 1999. His LinkedIn profile lists previous stints as a senior associate at McKinsey & Company, marketing director for PepsiCo China and program manager for Facebook.

The speaker’s latest work involves his own company, MyIntent, which crafts braided bracelets with custom messages on them. Pan announced toward the end of his speech that he would give away a bracelet to every attendee in the stadium.

While commenters on social media were confused as to how that process would happen, the university’s spokesperson clarified that instructions were coming Monday.

“Graduates should receive an email from the university today with further information,” Johnson said. “We did not share student contact info.”