One chef, one cook, one home kitchen... and a few fruit mince pies and puddings.

Letters have no gender, but that hasn't stopped our species ascribing masculine and feminine qualities to them. It's a phenomenon type designer and scholar Marie Boulanger examines in her debut book, XX XY: Sex, letters and stereotypes. She joins Blueprint to tell us the origins of this habit, and why we need to be critical about type and gender.

A bustling, futuristic metropolis with a strong sense of history.

Being known as one of the largest brick buildings in the world is a pretty banal accolade. But then you look at the cathedral at Albi in the south west of France, the birthplace of the man who almost beat Cook to Botany Bay, La Perouse, and it blows your mind. Large and brick it certainly is but what grabs you is its extraordinary shape. If you're used to medieval cathedrals being all flying buttresses and pinnacles, Albi will let you down. It's more like a great ship, rounded at each end, with its upright walls undulating thanks to its buttresses encased within semi-circular columns. A gigantic tower at one end completes the exterior.

When you try on a piece of clothing and think, 'this isn't me', what's happening psychologically?

It's time to head to Victoria's Cape Paterson with novelist Allee Richards. Pack your togs, sunscreen, a few paperbacks, and let the jangly sounds of Melbourne's Dick Diver take you to this sleepy seaside town down south on Bunurong Country.

What's love got to do with it? For Trawlwulwuy woman Emma Lee, 'love bombing' has been central in her mission to get Indigenous Tasmanians back into the state's contemporary history, as well as a seat at the table — efforts that have since resulted in Tasmanian constitutional reform, and joint-management of the state's world heritage.

Too often obscured by news headlines and stereotypes, it's time to get to know the vast urban expanse that is Western Sydney.