The latest headlines from our U.S. reporters sent straight to your inbox every weekday

Your briefing on the latest US headlines

Ohio State University it was solemn on a day intended for celebration; few hours before the from the university the start was scheduled to begin, a participant suffered a fatal fall from 136 feet at the ceremony site, Ohio Stadium.

With so many families already in the stadium – around 60,000 present – ​​and the event almost underway, the university decided to continue with the ceremony despite the tragedy.

As always, a start speaker was chosen to give words of wisdom to graduates, but the 2024 speaker had the extra burden of doing so under a cloud of despair.

Enter Chris Pan, a crypto-boosting “social entrepreneur” alumnus who was reportedly handpicked by the university president to give this year’s commencement address.

Did not went well.

The speech was described as the “worst commencement speech ever” by some attendees who spoke to The Roosterwho reported the strange address the graduates received on Sunday.

Despite never having given a speech of this magnitude, Mr. Pan was nevertheless chosen to lead the ceremony. He would have thought it was a prank when he was first asked for the address.

Sharing her anxiety about writing the speech on Facebook, Pan revealed she wrote parts of it while using the South American hallucinogen Ayahuasca – after a failed attempt using ChatGPT.

“I received help from AI (Ayahuasca Intelligence) this week to write my commencement speech to 60,000 graduates and families at Ohio State University this coming Sunday,” he wrote. “We’re in challenging times – we wanted something more sincere. (I tried chatGPT but it wasn’t as good)”

Pan later edited the post to say that he trusted “Higher Intelligence” rather than “Ayahuasca Intelligence.”

A screenshot of ‘social entrepreneur’ Chris Pan’s Facebook post claiming he used the South American hallucinogen ayahuasca to help him write his commencement speech at Ohio State University (The Rooster via Chris Pan Facebook)

He shared a quote from author and fellow psychonaut Terence McKenna alongside his post.

“They would say this to you in Peru, you know: this is our university. You went to Harvard, we went to Ayahuasca,” the quote read.

What followed was a bizarre cocktail of songs, crypto shillings and jewelry drops that left many in the audience stunned.

Shortly after the speech began, Mr. Pan asked the crowd to stand and sing 4 Non Blondes’ 1993 hit “What’s Up?”

“When I wake up in the morning and go out, I take a deep breath and I get really high and I scream at the top of my lungs: what is happening?” Mr. Pan sang before adding arm movements to match the song’s chorus.

After the singing, Mr. Pan began talking about investing, which eventually led him to recommend Bitcoin as a “very misunderstood asset class,” earning audible boos and laughter from the crowd.

He even had a PowerPoint to accompany his commentary.

Soon after, he appeared to suggest that singing was a better therapy for those suffering from mental illness than antidepressants.

“To gain emotional freedom, I started singing as a wellness practice after going through a terrible heartbreak. Every morning, I felt a lot of sadness and pain. I thought about taking antidepressants, but intuitively I started singing every morning,” he said. he. “I’m not a trained singer, but I used it as music therapy.”

He then told the crowd that he was gifting everyone bracelets with a word of their choice as a daily reminder of their spiritual and personal growth goals – noting that “the details [were] coming by email.”

Crypto-pushing OSU commencement speaker leads crowd in long chant during bizarre speech

Your word? An ampersand, to serve as a reminder that racism — well, it’s just not cool.

He ended his speech with another song, this time choosing “This Little Light of Mine.”

An OSU graduate captured the crowd’s sentiment during the speech in a video posted to TikTok.

“POV: You’re graduating from OSU and the commencement speaker is asking us to sing and dance,” the user wrote. Mr. Pan can be heard singing while students laugh and look perplexed in the background.

Reporters in The Rooster were left wondering “How did this happen” — according to sources who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity for fear of backlash from the university — it happened because OSU President Walter Edward “Ted” Carter wanted it to happen.

Typically, OSU commencement speakers are chosen by the Ohio State Speaker Advisory Committee, which uses a battery of criteria to determine whether or not a speaker would be a good fit for the university. Qualifiers such as “he is a good speaker” and can “convey a meaningful and relevant message to our graduating students” are among those considered during the selection process.

Barack Obama, Neil Armstrong, Senator Sherrod Brown and Dr. Anthony Fauci have already given the university’s commencement address.

Ohio State University Football Stadium, May 18, 2019, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP)

According to sources who spoke to The Rooster, the advisory committee creates a short list of candidates and sends them to the university president — but the president has the final say.

His final word was, apparently, Chris Pan.

This revelation was especially troubling after Pan revealed, in a now-inaccessible social media post, that Carter is sitting on the Terawulf Board of Directors, a Bitcoin mining company. The original social media post can still be seen on The Rooster.

“With @ohiostatepres – he sits on the board of zero-carbon bitcoin mining company @terawulf and his daughter does psychedelic-assisted therapy!” Mr. Pan wrote.

OSU Assistant Vice President of Media and Public Relations Ben Johnson told The Independent that Mr. Pan was on this year’s nomination list.

“Chris Pan was on the nomination list, which includes nominations going back several years,” Johnson said. “President Carter met Chris Pan for the first time the night before the start. They have no financial relationship. It is common for university presidents to participate in public and private councils.”

The Independent contacted Mr. Pan.

Ohio State University President Walter Edward ‘Ted’ Carter (Ohio State University)

Bitcoin enthusiasts on social media made it clear that they approved of the speech. A verified account called “The Bitcoin Therapist” shared a clip of Mr. Pan’s speech – including booing at the mention of Bitcoin – and celebrated the speech.

“OSU graduate Chris Pan uses ayahuasca to write his commencement speech, then tells 60,000 people to buy #Bitcoin to protect their purchasing power,” the report he wrote. “What a damn legend.”

University spokesman Ben Johnson declined to comment on Mr. Pan’s mention of Bitcoin during the speech, but told the local broadcaster WCMH that the university does not approve speeches, although staff read Mr. Pan’s draft notes.

An anonymous university employee who spoke to The Rooster said Mr. Pan was the “worst person I’ve ever worked with” when it came to preparing the commencement speech.

The source also revealed that early drafts of the speech included numerous references to Israel and Palestine – always a topical minefield, but especially so after OSU used the Ohio State Patrol to deal with Gaza protesters the previous week – and called for the references to be removed.

If anything, the speech was at least memorable.

Fuente