Fifty years ago the Kinsey report parted the blinds on American bedrooms. For the first time people's real sexual behavior was scientifically documented, and the country was amazed at how imaginative we all turned out to be. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why sex still has us blushing.

SEGMENT 1:

Historian James Jones has written a biography called "Alfred C. Kinsey." He tells Judith Strasser that the author of the so-called Kinsey Report was a homosexual and a masochist who combined his scientific survey methods with a social reformer's zeal in an effort to free up Americans' attitude towards sex.

SEGMENT 2:

Edmund White's most recent book, "The Farewell Symphony," is an autobiographical novel that chronicles thirty years of gay life. White tells Steve Paulson about the promiscuity of gay life in the '70s and the culture of body consciousness that accompanied it.

SEGMENT 3:

Writer and therapist Thomas Moore tells Jim Fleming that we need to reincorporate soulful sex into everyday life. He thinks our view of sex is alternately puritannical and pornographic. Moore's books include "Care of the Soul" and "The Soul of Sex." He's also the author of an article in the October 1997 issue of Mother Jones magazine called "Sex (American Style)." Also, Stanford's Marilyn Yalom, author of "A History of the Breast," tells Steve Paulson that women's breasts became sexualized in the Renaissance. Today, breasts are seen first as emblems of sexuality; their role in maternal murturing is seen as secondary.

Distribution dates:

• week of 11/30/97 - hour 3