Exclusive | Ohio State alum claims PTSD after wacky, hallucinogen-fueled grad speech but has this advice for future speakers

An Ohio State University student whose wacky commencement speech went viral last year wasn’t invited back to another college graduation this spring – and said he still has “PTSD” from the blowback in 2024.But self-described social entrepreneur Chris Pan — whose hallucinogen-fyeked 2024 speech was filled with crypto advice, awkward sing-alongs and even a magic trick — had advice for this year’s speakers, telling them to avoid topics that the audience might not connect with.“Don’t get caught up in stuff you are personally passionate about, but maybe isn’t as relevant to many or at least in their current life stage,” he added.Pan’s 2024 speech was mocked and even at one point led to a chorus of boos from the crowd of roughly 70,000 people but he told The Post last week he had even grander plans that involved fireworks and the school marching band to make the address more like a half-time show.“And especially for a group that didn’t get a high school graduation because of COVID, I really bent over backwards, like my heart was like what can I do to really elevate and celebrate these grads and I got so much backlash,” he said in an interview.“So you can imagine like someone that pours their heart out and gets just beat down if I’m a little still like PTSD.“The press, they’re all like writing about this as if I like shouldn’t have, but look at it from like the other lens, from the other lens, it’s weird to say, but no one’s applauding me for like trying because I gave a lot of effort,” Pan continued.“I was genuinely trying to deliver a really cool experience for the graduates and everybody in the stadium that day.”The OSU alum largely stood by his wonky message to the 12,000 grads — that he admitted he wrote on hallucinogens — and said he particularly feels vindicated by his bitcoin advocacy that sparked the most jeers from the crowd.During the 17-minute speech, he called cryptocurrency “a very misunderstood asset cl...