Every number here is counted from the transcripts and the scriptures read on air, or comes from a cited source. Where the record gives a range, we show the range. Every episode has its own numbers too: open any episode and tap Numbers.
Then and now
What the money on the show was really worth
A dollar in 1829 bought far more than a dollar today, and people earned far fewer of them. So each amount is shown as the share of a worker’s pay it took then, and that same share of a full-time worker’s pay today.
1829 · $3,000
Printing the Book of Mormon
“agreed with Mr. Egbert Grandin to print 5,000 copies for the sum of $3,000”
Then10 to 14.3 yearsof a laborer’s pay, which ran $210 to $300 a year (70¢ to $1 a day)
Today$641,000 to $915,000the same 10 to 14.3 years at today’s median full-time pay, $64,064 a year ($1,232 a week, BLS)
Joseph’s own pay: answering common questions in the Elders’ Journal, July 1838, he said money digging got him only $14 a month. Twelve months of that is $168, so $3,000 was almost 18 years of it. That is less than a laborer’s cash wage; the answer doesn’t say whether room and board came with it.
Read on air from the manuscript history of the Church. Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to Grandin as security for the bill.
Show the math
Pay then: 70¢ a day (Northeast states, 1829) × 300 days = $210 a year; $1 a day × 300 days = $300 a year.
Share of a year’s pay: $3,000 ÷ $210 = 14.3 years; $3,000 ÷ $300 = 10.0 years.
Pay today: $1,232 a week × 52 weeks = $64,064 a year.
Today’s value: $3,000 × $64,064 ÷ $210 = $915,200; $3,000 × $64,064 ÷ $300 = $640,640. Rounded, that is $641,000 to $915,000.
Put another way, each dollar of that pay then is about $214 to $305 of a worker’s pay today.
1829 · $200
Joseph and Emma’s farm in Harmony
“he buys a farm that has a house on it, and it's almost 14 acres, right next to the river, for $200”
Thenabout 8 to 11 monthsof a laborer’s pay, which ran $210 to $300 a year (70¢ to $1 a day)
Today$43,000 to $61,000the same 8 to 11 months at today’s median full-time pay, $64,064 a year ($1,232 a week, BLS)
Bought on credit from Emma’s father, Isaac Hale: agreement signed April 6, 1829 (Joseph Smith Papers). Gerrit says on air Joseph struggled to make the payments; the papers show the last one was made in August 1830. The printing bill was 15 times this.
Show the math
Pay then: 70¢ a day (Northeast states, 1829) × 300 days = $210 a year; $1 a day × 300 days = $300 a year.
Share of a year’s pay: $200 ÷ $210 = 0.95 of a year, about 11.4 months; $200 ÷ $300 = 0.67 of a year, about 8.0 months.
Pay today: $1,232 a week × 52 weeks = $64,064 a year.
Today’s value: $200 × $64,064 ÷ $210 = $61,013.33; $200 × $64,064 ÷ $300 = $42,709.33. Rounded, that is $43,000 to $61,000.
Put another way, each dollar of that pay then is about $214 to $305 of a worker’s pay today.
1816 · $2.53
A bushel of wheat, December 1816
“wheat in December of 1816, when the Smiths are first getting there to Palmyra, it's selling for $2.53 a bushel”
50 bushels today$303at $6.06 a bushel, July 2026 (USDA)
Gerrit’s example for a farm family like the Smiths: the same harvest lost about three quarters of its value in four years. Wheat is compared by price, not by pay.
Then8 to 9.8 yearsof a laborer’s pay, which ran $246 to $300 a year (82¢ to $1 a day)
Today$513,000 to $625,000the same 8 to 9.8 years at today’s median full-time pay, $64,064 a year ($1,232 a week, BLS)
Bought in Kirtland, Ohio: the $2,400 paid for four mummies and the papyri together (Joseph Smith Papers). Gerrit says on air the mummies were the really big deal. A portion of the papyri was translated into the Book of Abraham.
Show the math
Pay then: 82¢ a day (Midwest states, 1835) × 300 days = $246 a year; $1 a day × 300 days = $300 a year.
Share of a year’s pay: $2,400 ÷ $246 = 9.8 years; $2,400 ÷ $300 = 8.0 years.
Pay today: $1,232 a week × 52 weeks = $64,064 a year.
Today’s value: $2,400 × $64,064 ÷ $246 = $625,014.63; $2,400 × $64,064 ÷ $300 = $512,512. Rounded, that is $513,000 to $625,000.
Put another way, each dollar of that pay then is about $214 to $260 of a worker’s pay today.
1831 · $1.25
A copy of the Book of Mormon
“you will not sell the books for less than 10 shillings... But it's roughly $1.25.”
Then22½ to 30 yearsof a worker’s pay, which Gerrit puts at $300 to $400 a year
Today$1.44 million to $1.92 millionthe same 22½ to 30 years at today’s median full-time pay, $64,064 a year ($1,232 a week, BLS)
Salt Lake City, 1866. This card uses Gerrit’s $300 to $400 a year. As a rough national check, factory workers averaged $297 a year in 1860 and $384 in 1870 (Long); at those two figures the reward is 30 and 23 years of pay.
Show the math
Pay then: $300 a year (Gerrit); $400 a year (Gerrit).
Share of a year’s pay: $9,000 ÷ $300 = 30.0 years; $9,000 ÷ $400 = 22.5 years.
Pay today: $1,232 a week × 52 weeks = $64,064 a year.
Today’s value: $9,000 × $64,064 ÷ $300 = $1,921,920; $9,000 × $64,064 ÷ $400 = $1,441,440. Rounded, that is $1.44 million to $1.92 million.
Put another way, each dollar of that pay then is about $160 to $214 of a worker’s pay today.
Thenabout 3½ to 4½ monthsof a factory worker’s pay: $345 a year in 1880, $427 in 1890
Today$20,000 to $24,000the same 3½ to 4½ months at today’s median full-time pay, $64,064 a year ($1,232 a week, BLS)
From his journal, read on air: $10 to Emma; $5 each to Clara, Owen, Blanche and Alice; and on down the list. There is no count for 1888 itself, so this uses the census years on either side, 1880 and 1890.
Show the math
Pay then: $345 a year (factory workers, 1880); $427 a year (factory workers, 1890).
Share of a year’s pay: $131 ÷ $345 = 0.38 of a year, about 4.6 months; $131 ÷ $427 = 0.31 of a year, about 3.7 months.
Pay today: $1,232 a week × 52 weeks = $64,064 a year.
Today’s value: $131 × $64,064 ÷ $345 = $24,325.75; $131 × $64,064 ÷ $427 = $19,654.30. Rounded, that is $20,000 to $24,000.
Put another way, each dollar of that pay then is about $150 to $186 of a worker’s pay today.
How we counted
Most amounts are shown as the share of a year’s pay they took then, and that same share of a full-time worker’s pay today. Before the Civil War the pay is a range for a common laborer, and the range comes from two numbers. The fewer years come from $1 a day: Gerrit’s figure on the show, and the top of the 50¢-to-$1 range given for Erie Canal laborers (Digital Public Library of America). The more years come from the average daily wage that economic historian Robert Margo measured for that region and year, usually 65¢ to 85¢. A full working year is counted as 300 days, about six days a week (Long counted 299 for factory workers). Many laborers worked fewer days, so the true share was, if anything, larger. For 1888 the pay is Clarence Long’s average yearly earnings of factory workers, which already count the days they were out of work; for 1866 it is Gerrit’s $300 to $400. Today’s pay is the median for full-time workers, $1,232 a week (Bureau of Labor Statistics, third quarter of 2026), or $64,064 a year. That is everyone working full time, not just laborers, so it makes the old amounts look bigger than a laborer-to-laborer comparison would. Wheat is different: it is compared by the price of a bushel today. Every quote is word for word from the transcript, and every step of the math is shown on each card.
The answer depends on two things: what a laborer earned that year, and how many days he worked. On the show Gerrit has said both “10 times” a year’s pay (S1E14) and “12 or 13 times” (S3E47). Here is how those compare with the record.
1. What a laborer earned, year by year
Average daily wage for common labor, without board (Margo, 2000). From 1821 to 1845 the Northeast average stayed between 65¢ (1831) and 98¢ (1837). It never reached Gerrit’s $1 in these years (the Midwest line touched $1.04 in 1837), so $1 is the top of the range, a good year in a good place. Joseph’s own $14 a month works out to 54¢ a working day ($14 ÷ 26 days), under the 67¢ to 78¢ the Northeast averaged in the 1820s, unless room and board came with it.
2. Every combination
Years of a laborer’s pay to equal $3,000. Rows are daily wages from the record; columns are days worked in a year. The two outlined cells, 70¢ and $1 at 300 days, are the range on the printing card. Darker cells mean more years.
Pay a day
250 daysa slow year
275 daysa short year
300 daysa full year
312 daysevery workday
65¢lowest Northeast year, 1831
18.5
16.8
15.4
14.8
70¢Northeast average, 1829
17.1
15.6
14.3
13.7
78¢Northeast, 1825
15.4
14.0
12.8
12.3
85¢Northeast, 1834–35
14.1
12.8
11.8
11.3
$1Gerrit’s figure; top of the Erie Canal range
12.0
10.9
10.0
9.6
Gerrit’s “10 times” is $1 a day for 300 days: $3,000 ÷ $300 = 10.0 years.
Gerrit’s “12 or 13 times” (he was speaking of 1828) sits inside the table: 78¢ a day gives 12.8 years at 300 days and 12.3 at 312. Margo’s 1828 Northeast wage, 67¢, would give 14.9 years at 300 days.
The measured 1829 wage, 70¢, gives 13.7 to 17.1 years for anywhere from 250 to 312 days of work. The fewest years in the whole table are 9.6; the most are 18.5.
Bottom line: at $1 a day and a full 300-day year it is 10 years; only a 312-day year, every workday, gets it under 10. A typical 1829 laborer at 70¢ would have needed about 14.
3. Run the numbers yourself
A year’s pay$300$1 × 300 days
Years to earn $3,00010.0 years$3,000 ÷ $300
In today’s pay$640,640$3,000 × $64,064 ÷ $300
Today’s pay is the BLS median for full-time workers, $1,232 a week × 52 = $64,064 a year.
4. Did the book pay for itself?
Cost$3,0005,000 copies, so $0.60 a copy
Lowest price$1.25“not less than 10 shillings” (1831)
Break even2,400 copies$3,000 ÷ $1.25, about half the run
If all sold$6,2505,000 × $1.25; $3,250 over cost
A copy at $1.25 cost a laborer 1¼ to 2 days of work ($1.25 ÷ $1, and $1.25 ÷ 65¢). Gerrit says on S5E18 the rest of the copies were bound over the next year and a half to two years; the show doesn’t say how many actually sold, so this is what the price allowed, not a sales total.
Putting numbers to words
2,797,024 words across 295 episodes, counted
Every word in the automatic transcripts, counted against a word list for each theme: “temple,” “endowment,” “sealed” and the rest count toward Temples, and so on. This is dictionary counting, the numbers side of content analysis: it measures how much a theme comes up, not what is said about it. A word can still be counted under the wrong meaning now and then, and the transcripts have their own slips, so treat small differences as noise. Rates are per 10,000 words, so a long episode and a short one compare fairly. The Announcer’s lines are left out, and re-runs are left out of these totals so nothing counts twice.
Themes, season by season
Mentions per 10,000 words. Darker means more, compared with that theme’s own average.
Theme
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
Scripture
32.6
23.3
15.9
16.3
22.9
19.0
Faith and prayer
11.4
9.8
11.4
12.6
11.9
13.3
Prophets and priesthood
12.0
13.9
25.0
18.9
18.3
14.5
Temples and ordinances
7.6
14.3
18.4
17.0
10.7
10.6
Missionary work
5.9
9.5
14.5
14.3
15.8
15.4
Family and marriage
13.8
19.3
21.7
22.2
18.8
16.7
Plural marriage
1.5
7.3
3.6
7.0
6.7
2.6
Mobs, jail and violence
13.6
14.5
5.7
5.7
6.9
5.6
Death and the afterlife
15.0
11.6
18.9
12.6
15.2
16.9
Critics and hard questions
3.0
4.4
4.9
3.6
3.4
4.5
Government and law
15.0
12.0
5.0
5.6
9.9
4.9
Money
7.6
8.7
7.2
8.1
5.7
7.0
Sports and food
1.2
1.6
3.1
4.0
4.4
3.6
The episode that talked about it most
Highest rate per 10,000 words, among episodes of at least 3,000 words.
Counted as the name is written in the transcript; a full name counts once. Joseph means any Joseph: Joseph Smith, Joseph F. Smith, Joseph Knight and the rest.
Each season’s signature words
Words said far more in that season than in the other five. For example, “Calhoun 44 of 46” means 44 of the 46 times it was said on the whole show came in Season 1.
Season 1
Calhoun 44 of 46Hadley 51 of 60coffee 66 of 88Buren 51 of 68Daniels 25 of 28Clay 60 of 97
Season 2
Partridge 113 of 133Phelps 149 of 197Mason 105 of 134lodge 41 of 47Lincoln 180 of 301masonry 64 of 89
Season 3
tongue 118 of 159Boggs 89 of 113Cartwright 25 of 25plank 29 of 33archive 31 of 38cemetery 31 of 42
Season 4
Bunyan 54 of 59Roggero 29 of 30deacon 92 of 128Potter 38 of 45onion 27 of 31Rigdon 274 of 543
Season 5
Brocchus 83 of 85corner 161 of 212indulgence 38 of 48purgatory 73 of 125plate 163 of 362flag 66 of 121
Season 6
Booth 163 of 222parliament 48 of 57jingle 26 of 27Wakefield 37 of 43buckwheat 38 of 45Jefferson 37 of 52
Family and marriage: 5,363 mentions, 19.2 per 10,000 words. Words: family, families, wife, wives, husband, husbands, children, kids, mother, mothers, daughter, daughters, marriage, marriages, married. Not counted: “plural marriage” (that counts under Plural marriage), “children of” (Israel, God, men). “Father” is left off the list because on the show it most often means Heavenly Father.
Death and the afterlife: 4,188 mentions, 15 per 10,000 words. Words: died, death, dead, die, dying, hell, heaven, resurrection, resurrected, afterlife, paradise, grave. Not counted: “Dead and in Hell” (the series title) and “what the hell.”
Critics and hard questions: 1,119 mentions, 4 per 10,000 words. Words: anti-Mormon (and anti-Mormons, anti-Mormonism), critic, critics, apostate, apostates, skeptic, skeptics, skeptical, accusation, accusations, accused, conspiracy.
Government and law: 2,330 mentions, 8.3 per 10,000 words. Words: government, congress, governor, constitution, constitutional, court, courts, legal, senate, senator, law, laws (lowercase only, so William Law and his family are not counted). Not counted: “in-law,” “law of Moses,” “law of consecration,” “law of tithing,” “law of the gospel,” “law of chastity.”
Sports and food: 862 mentions, 3.1 per 10,000 words. Words: football, Bears (capitalized, the team), Raiders, basketball, baseball, burger, burgers, pie, pies, pizza, food, dinner, lunch.
Names, and how each is counted:
Joseph: Joseph, any Joseph
Jesus Christ: Jesus or Christ, not counting “Church of Jesus Christ”
Brigham Young: Brigham
Sidney Rigdon: Sidney or Rigdon
Oliver Cowdery: Oliver or Cowdery, not Oliver Cromwell, Huntington or Granger
Martin Harris: Martin, not Martin Luther or Martin Van Buren
Hyrum Smith: Hyrum
Wilford Woodruff: Wilford or Woodruff, not Phoebe or Mrs. Woodruff
Satan: Satan or Lucifer
Moroni: Moroni
John Taylor: John Taylor
the Whitmers: Whitmer
Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln
Nephi: Nephi
John C. Bennett: Bennett, not James Gordon Bennett
Emma Smith: Emma
Russell M. Nelson: Nelson
Lucy Mack Smith: Lucy, not Lucy Harris or Lucy Walker
Signature words for an episode are words said often in it and in few other episodes (tf-idf: the count, weighted by how rare the word is across the show). To keep them readable and private, a capitalized word appears only when it is the surname of a historical person on that episode’s own list of people, never a listener, missionary or friend of the show; other words must be ordinary dictionary words, which drops transcription slips; and words about health, sex or slurs are never shown. Season signature words use the same rules.
Words are every word Gerrit and Richard say in the transcripts (not the announcer). Sources, people and years come from each episode’s page. Only episodes with a transcript on Litner are counted.
In Season 1 the topic started about 1.1 minute in. By Season 5 it was 19 minutes. Which is why every episode has a “Skip the banter” button. Median minutes before the topic starts:
Episodes got longer too: an average of 59.7 minutes in Season 1, and 67.7 in Season 6.
How we counted
Each episode’s topic start is where Litner’s “Skip the banter” begins, found by reading the transcript. The middle value (median) of each season, 295 episodes in all, re-releases left out.
Coming next
Hand coding of a sample of episodes, Saldaña style, to check the word lists against what is actually said
Book of Mormon counts: words by book and by speaker, from the scripture text
More then-and-now money, as each amount is researched