i absolutely never take anything seriously regardless of the conversation, the most interesting conversation to me is likely to have me even less interested in seriousness
the unknowable makes for the most interesting conversation topics, and how serious can you be about thing's that cannot be known?
If you want to talk about starvation and disease, well that's a serious topic, though not quite interesting. And don't say it is, because if it were interesting enough, it wouldn't exist and would no longer be serious.