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Sue Johanson, sex guru, has three grown kids, two grandchildren, three books, a nursing degree and not one but two hit TV programs. Thirty weeks a year, live from Toronto's SkyDome, she broadcasts The Sunday Night Sex Show, a favorite in Canada since 1996.

In 2002 she added a second hour especially for the U.S. audience. Talk Sex With Sue airs late nights on the Oxygen cable network, and some 4.2 million Americans now stay up to catch her tips and quips, from the latest in lubricants to the odds of a male over 35 having a heart attack during intercourse.

Johanson, a leading sex educator in Canada for more than three decades, will discuss absolutely anything except the year she was born. "Sometime in the 20th century" is about as specific as she gets. Gray hair gives her credibility, and she knows it. "Nothing reduces inhibitions like a grandmother sitting on TV talking about whips, willies and warts," she says.

She's the Julia Child of sex, unflappable and candid. Fans know she likes to knit and sew, bake sourdough biscuits, putter at her Ontario lake cottage and go to yard sales—"I'm cheap!"

On camera, she is a born ham, especially when sharing condom advice: "If you wanna be mine, cover your vine!"; "Shroud the moose before you let loose!" Every week she delves into her Pleasure Chest—actually an old sewing basket, thriftily relined with red velvet—and offers tabletop demos of sex toys. On a live broadcast, this can be risky. Audiences have seen her battle a smoldering vibrator and a badly out-of-control vacuum pump. Sex toys that are dishwasher-safe get a special nod of approval.

The heart of her shows is the call-in segment. Erectile dysfunction, pregnancy and yeast infections are the most common worries; always, Johanson's answers reassure and teach as well as amuse. This is an international public education project that only looks like standup comedy. Her approach is slangy but never vulgar. She has never been bleeped. And you can't beat her command of statistics: What percentage of American teens have their first sexual experience in automobiles? "Twelve percent. You never see that in car commercials." What percentage of women over 80 continue to have sex? "Thirty percent. Finding a man that age with working parts is another story."

Johanson works in the tradition of the wisecracking advice columnist who uses reader queries to explain human behavior. Like Dear Abby and Ann Landers, she tackles sensitive topics head-on, and like Dr. Ruth Westheimer, she displays a frankness that can be jaw-dropping. Sex aids for quadriplegics? Bondage play after a bypass? Sue covers it all. Canadians seem to love it, stopping her on the street or at the grocery store for detailed sex advice. Americans politely murmur that they really, really like the show.

CREDENTIALS AND CREDIBILITY

Born in Ontario to an English-Irish family, married young to a Swedish-Canadian electrician employed by a public utility, Johanson is a registered nurse with postgraduate training in family planning, human sexuality and counseling and communications. These credentials underpin her credibility. Her ability to talk easily with teenagers about sexual issues led her to create, in 1970, the first birth control clinic in any North American high school. She still does 60 shows live and 30 lectures a year; for her countless courses, talks and media presentations on smart sex, she received in 2001 the prestigious Order of Canada award, that nation's version of knighthood.

Good sex after midlife interests Johanson—and her audience. "Who says you shouldn't have exciting sex at 70?" she asks. "If fitness and flexibility allow, do it, try it, don't limit yourself by age. 'Oh dear, I'm 50, I can't, I shouldn't.' " The key, she believes, is the quality of the relationship with one's partner. Enjoyable sex calls for drive, enthusiasm, imagination.

And understanding. "As we get older the body changes—no more firm, young, bodacious tatas. Your waistline is gone, you've got turkey neck and wrinkled skin. ... You're not sure what a partner will think? Well, your partner has the same worries. That manly chest has slipped south. ... Talk about it ahead of time. Say, 'I'm going to find this a little difficult—my body works, but it isn't so beautiful.' And they'll likely reply, 'Thank goodness! Me too!' "

NOT JUST FOR THE YOUNG

Arousal in both sexes takes longer with age, Johanson explains, and the need for orgasm diminishes dramatically. But the need for a sex life is evergreen, even if grown children try to interfere, or shame ("Mother! At your age!"). Sex in nursing homes and assisted-living communities is growing more common, she adds; in Canada, facilities often include a "love nest" on the premises, with double bed, flowers, candles and a good radio/CD player. Improvised intimacy works, too. "Privacy can be as simple as a Do Not Disturb sign on a room door, which means 'Meals and meds can wait. We are having fun in here.' "

Johanson's weekly call-ins still demonstrate the widespread belief that sex is the property of the young. That's changing. Aging boomers, she says, will permanently redefine post-50 sex. Women in their 70s and 80s have begun asserting their ongoing interest in a sex life. Sue calls such people "cougars"—older women who enjoy sex, always did and have no intention of giving it up. Recently she spoke to an 85-year-old woman whose male partner is 35. No complaints from either side; quite the contrary.

"So why accept arbitrary age parameters?" Johanson asks. The basic rules of sex apply at every life stage. "Use your head, plan ahead, know what you're doing, never let sex just happen." At 18 or 80, she advises, "Don't always expect multi-orgasmic bliss. Pleasure, sure. Affection, definitely. Sex should be energizing. Enjoyable. And a bit of a giggle."

Anne Matthews is a nonfiction writer in Princeton, N.J.