Rhetorical road show Intelligence Squared U.S. will be rolling into town on Wednesday, and podcast-loving policy wonks are invited to get in on the ideological smackdown.

The public affairs discussion, which airs on NPR and PBS, will tackle the merits of tossing out the minimum wage April 3 in front of a live audience at the Burke Theater at the U.S. Navy Memorial, 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets are $40 per person and $12 for students. Attendees are welcome to enjoy a pre-taping reception from 4:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m., and the main event is 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The opposing parties in this case include Cato Institute Vice President James Dorn and Hoover Institution research fellow
Russell Roberts, on the side of abolishing the minimum wage, facing off against Karen Kornbluh, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Jared Bernstein, former chief economist for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Audience members are polled before and after each debate, with the verbal combatants challenged to sway hearts and minds via seven-minute opening statements, a free-form Q&A and two-minute closing arguments.

Intelligence Squared U.S. will next be taking the fights to New York City, lining up party-minded pugilists for an April 17 talk — featuring former Oklahoma politician turned pundit Mickey Edwards — on whether “The GOP Must Seize the Center or Die.” And that will be followed by a May 8 biology-above-all brawl called “The FDA’s Caution is Hazardous to Our Health.”