Playing with fire at a Seattle sex club

The new book 'America Unzipped' takes readers on a wild ride

Jan 15, msnbc

Becoming the msnbc.com Sexploration columnist proved to be much more of an education than Brian Alexander had ever anticipated. The questions from readers covered a huge range of sexual activities, some of which were rather eye-opening. Many questions could not be used in the column because they were too, well, just too much. "But they made me wonder what we were really up to in this country, especially considering the so-called 'culture wars,' many of which are just euphemisms for sex," he says. "Since people often prefer to keep their sexual escapades quiet, the voices I was hearing through the column’s correspondence weren’t being heard. I wanted to go find them."

So off he went, traveling the country over a period of a year, reporting for a series we called America Unzipped and for his new book of the same name. Through a chain of adventures, Alexander discovered that many Americans are much less buttoned-up than is generally thought. He attended a hot-sex seminar for evangelical Christians and an erotic toy party for housewives in the heartland.

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photo: Brian Alexander