How do we imagine and portray the desert? And what does it say about us and our relationship to each other and, crucially, to the planet we live on?

In this, the second in a loosely connected series on places in fiction and popular culture, I chat to Dr Aidan Tynan about deserts in fiction and philosophy, from Mad Max to Burning Man, Nietzsche to Baudrillard,  Cormac McCarthy to China Miéville.