[causi]

I highly recommend McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.

[tpoindex]

Also highly recommended, John McWhorter's podcast, Lexicon Valley. Not only English, but also dives into other languages and why they are so. Edit: add older episode archives at Slate,

https://www.booksmartstudios.org/s/lexicon-valley (current)

https://slate.com/podcasts/lexicon-valley (archive)