What a great experience. I think I’m going to divide my timeline from now on into two segments – BC (before Colbert) and AC.

Yesterday was a marathon, the interviews went well at Bloomberg and CNN although the latter was a bit eerie – talking to a blank screen with an interviewer in London. All this preceded our arrival at the jaunty blue awning of the Colbert Report world HQ.

The Colbert team was hospitable beyond measure, everything you’d want. Their green room was cozy and featured platters of food – crudite, cheese and crackers, iced expresso – and my name on the door in a star.

Emily, the show’s producer, came by to chat, and gave me some useful notes. More examples, fewer concepts.

In a funny kind of way, all this TLC actually got me more keyed up. I take journalistic interviews completely in stride now, but this was the COLBERT REPORT.

Then, Stephen himself popped by. We had a nice chat about improvision – I gave him a copy of Jamming – and he talked a bit about how the language of jazz had been kind of a lingua franca for Second City, where he spent a fair amount of time.

No hint of mania, no short fuses. Just a courtly smiling guy giving plenty of eye contact and even… reassurance.

You can tell a lot about a production team by the vibe on a set. The Colbert Show’s vibe is family. Friendly, helpful, supportive. The makeup artist smiled at me when she was done, offering a “have fun,” as I got ready to go on stage.

Then it was time, following the second commercial break – getting miked – stepping over cables in the darkness – flashlights from the production assistants guiding the way – the rumble of the crowd – and there I was sitting in the famous guest seat while Stephen warmed up the crowd – popping his fingers and jiving to the music and then when the cameras were on doing his signature victory lap and bow before sitting down to start the interview.

I knew we were off and running when the exchange around assonance and alliteration – it was right out of improv acting – “take the offer without reservation and do something to it.” I remember paying close attention as we talked – so that I could imprint the memory on my mind. The six minutes went by like a flash and like an eternity.

This morning I gave an interview for Front Porch on New Hampshire Public Radio. The technician for the show, who had been a teacher for ten years, said to me as I was leaving: “We’re not at a tipping point, we’ve already tipped – now we’re trying to tip things back before it’s too late.”

I’m writing this en route to NY for a television “trifecta” – CNN, Bloomberg and the Colbert Report, all in one day. We’re observing the 50^th anniversary of Sputnik – October 4 – with intensity. As I wing my way to New York, I’m struck by how the promotion of books and access to mass media is dominated by one city, New York.

My wife Laurel threw a book launch party for me at my offices at the San Francisco Presidio. About a hundred people came – it was sort of a West Coast version of “It’s your Life.” In-laws, co-workers, friends from college, business school, several people who were profiled in the book, colleagues from many fields, neighbors, parents from our kids’ school. A lovely feeling in the room, and a common concern around the questions raised in the book. Jim Rousey, who is my piano teacher, played lovely jazz piano in the background.

Scotty McLennan, who is now chaplain at Stanford, raised an interesting question. Why, he asked, should we focus on the US at all? Shouldn’t smart money simply fund whatever is best from a global perspective? Send the money to China or Finland if those are the best places for innovation?

Well, in fact, that is already happening. But I don’t think we are yet at the stage of “withering the state away,” at least when it comes to innovation. America for many years to come will continue to be the indispensable nation; half of the r & d expenditures world-wide are American, 38 of the top 50 universities. And our share of the top talent end of the bell curve is still large. When it comes to large-scale innovation, the world will still needs America’s ability to pilot the new, the harness her forgiving, exploration-oriented culture to the needs of the world. All we need to do is fix education, the funding of science, our lack of a national strategy for innovation, etc. etc.

This morning I have an interview with Marketplace – the massive NPR business show. Although they would never say this, these are interviews. They’re trying to figure out whether you can talk, string ideas together, and listen – and of course whether you have anything to say. It seems to go well, but one can never tell. In any event, I try to make the message of Innovation Nation relevant for a business audience and for investors – which is pretty easy.

I’m also getting more an more impressed by the power of radio. I’ve received a stack of emails from people who heard the On Point show, for example.