An Ohio State University commencement speech delivered at the school on Sunday by an alum named Christopher Pan—described in a pregraduation press release as a “social entrepreneur”—has made a bit of a stir for its focus on two subjects that are generally not covered in commencement speeches; namely 1) Bitcoin, and 2) Pan’s own inspirational wristband company.
Videos posted online and coverage on the local muckraking site the Rooster document Pan’s 17-minute address, in which he:
• Sang the 4 Non Blondes song “What’s Up” for 60 seconds, then led the crowd in what he said was a Navy SEAL–endorsed breathing technique.
• Delivered a riff about “financial, emotional, and spiritual freedom” that culminated in an exhortation to invest in Bitcoin, which was met with instant, stadiumwide groaning that you can watch here.
• Demonstrated the purported growth potential of the cryptocurrency by bringing Ohio State’s president to the podium for a “magic trick” in which three quarters changed into an oversized gold “Bitcoin.” (Bitcoins are an electronic currency but actual gold coins are sometimes used to represent them.)
• Spent four minutes leading an exercise in which listeners were supposed to concentrate on generating a single word that expresses an “intention” for their life—which, not coincidentally, is related to the mission of what is described in Pan’s OSU bio as a company he founded that is called MyIntent and prints custom “intention” words and phrases on bracelets. (MyIntent appears to be incorporated as a benefit corporation, which is a for-profit business that also has a public service mission.)
• Complained, during a call for empathy and tolerance, that the press had been running unfair stories about his selection as commencement speaker.
• Led a singalong to “This Little Light of Mine.”
After the speech, the Rooster noted that Pan appears to have implied in a LinkedIn post that he took ayahuasca to help write his address. A new Rooster post, attributing its information to a disgruntled member of the advisory committee that was supposed to help select the commencement speaker, said that school president Ted Carter chose Pan for the role despite his not having appeared on an initial list of 79 individuals that were being considered. Carter—the guy from the Bitcoin “magic trick”—is also on the board of directors of a Bitcoin “mining” company called Terawulf.
A spokesperson for the Ohio State University disputed the report that Pan had not been recommended by the committee, saying that the list Carter chose from “includes nominations going back several years.” The spokesman also said that it is common for university presidents to sit on corporate boards, but did not respond to a question about whether Carter currently has Bitcoin holdings himself.
