Episode

“The Invite” Or, Who’s Afraid Of Olivia Wilde? (With Emily Gould)

Podcast
Critical Darlings
Published
Jul 30, 2026
Duration seconds
5714
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/THI2395237233.mp3
Audio
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/THI2395237233.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/critical-darlings-7771666/episodes/the-invite-or-who-s-afraid-of-olivia-wilde-with-emily-gould
Markdown
/podcast/critical-darlings-7771666/the-invite-or-who-s-afraid-of-olivia-wilde-with-emily-gould.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/critical-darlings-7771666/episodes/the-invite-or-who-s-afraid-of-olivia-wilde-with-emily-gould/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/critical-darlings-7771666/the-invite-or-who-s-afraid-of-olivia-wilde-with-emily-gould.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Come for the Les Miz karaoke takes, stay for The Invite. New York Magazine’s Emily Gould joins us to discuss Olivia Wilde’s sexy, awkward comedy of domestic manners starring herself, Seth Rogan, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz. Set in an aspirational San Francisco apartment owned by a deeply neurotic twosome, they collide with the sexy couple upstairs at an impromptu dinner party staged by Wilde's character Angela. Their night, and the movie itself, swings from polite nicety to anger to sadness to horniness, ultimately arriving at a poignant question: what relationships are worth saving, and when is it time to just move on? Both as a director and performer, The Invite is destined to become a calling card for Wilde. Among many things, we discuss her unusual Hollywood trajectory, the studied aesthetics of aspirational apartment living, Esther Perel, firefighter aesthetics, dinner party etiquette, Les Miz, steak knives, woo woo treatements for back pain, and San Francisco real estate.   Next week, everyone has forgotten about him, except for us! It’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Send us mailbag questions, comments, and gossip: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices