While getting my hair cut today the small talk between me and the stylist ended up covering the basic timeline of the start of COVID, when the different spikes and variants were, the symptoms and likelihood of death, and the timeline of vaccination and how certain professions were eligible before others. All interspersed between talking about baking and cats and work and other day to day casual stuff. Next to us, I overheard that small talking involved the topic of supply chain shortages and which things you couldn't get when and what you can't get now.
Leading me to conclude that no amount of conversational exposition in any sci-fi story is ever going to be unrealistic. People absolutely just casually tell each other the basics of the universe even though they both already know it.