It's worth reading the popsci works of Steve Weinberg. He's older than Hawking, so not in the junuior generations. But he's still alive, a gifted expositor,

It's worth reading the popsci works of Steve Weinberg. He's older than Hawking, so not in the junuior generations. But he's still alive, a gifted expositor, and a genuinely first rate physicist. He's basically the person who assembled the Standard Model.