Things I Learned from My Mother from Arcadian Revival
Episode 1 | Fixing Up Old Buildings
Hosted by Bethany Bowyer Khan, Founder, Arcadian Revival
Featuring Dee Bowyer
A welcome
In our very first episode of Things I Learned from My Mother, we begin with how we hope this podcast makes you feel.
Hi, I’m Bethany Bowyer Khan and this is Things I Learned from My Mother from Arcadian Revival, a podcast about creating home, community, and a deeper connection to nature and to one another.
What does home feel like to you? Is there a scent, sound, or season that instantly transports you to a familiar place? Does it pull at a longing feeling for something warm, or inviting?
For me home is a feeling…of love and acceptance, of empathy and understanding. It is a place of comfort and ease where we can feel inspired, can grow, and can be the best versions of ourselves. It is a place where lessons from the past help instill values for today. I connect to home through my own experiences of the smell of breakfast thoughtfully being made before I wake or the smell of the fresh summer air breezing through the windows of our century home filled with heirlooms and books where I grew up, I feel home through gardening, with my hands feeling the coolness of the earth between my fingers, of a hug, a shared glass of iced to after an afternoon of yard work, or the warmth of a familiar quilt wrapped around me while listening to a thunderstorm from the comfort of a porch swing on a summer evening. It’s the voices calling my name, laughter, dancing around our kitchen, reading stories at bedtime, and a million other things.
At its core it’s about creating a place that is welcoming, while keeping in mind that it is a microcosm of the greater global community in which we live in and a just a piece of the larger natural world in which we call home.
Here we’ll explore answers to this question through generational wisdom, shared perspectives, and from Mother Nature herself.
Whether you’re here for something you learned from your mother (or father) or you’re a parent yourself or you’re just looking for that warm feeling from a guiding voice, we hope you’ll find it here.
Fixing Up Old Buildings
Today I sit down with someone who shaped my creative vision and sense of place more than anyone else: my mother, Dee Bowyer.
Together, we trace the throughlines of our lives that have been built, sometimes quite literally, around the act of fixing up old buildings. From family farmhouses to historic main streets, and from old architectural gems of the south to New York City landmarks, this conversation is rooted in the kind of slow, intentional desire to preserve and make better what lies before us that has shaped both of our lives.
We explore how the act of touching and tending aging structures is about more than just aesthetics or preservation…it’s about respecting what came before, and leaving things a little better than you found them.
Whether you’re a lover of historic homes, a DIY renovator, a mother-daughter duo with a shared vision, or someone who believes in the quiet revolution of place-making, there is something for you in this episode.
We’ll share stories of growing up in a multigenerational farmhouse and learning renovation lessons by trial and error, peeling back layers of newer construction and family heirlooms, community work that intersects with architecture, place, and dignity, the unspoken values passed from one generation to the next about care, craftsmanship, and resilience, and how we both learned, in our own ways, to trust our instincts.
We hope this episode ignites a passion toward the power in restoration, not just of places, but of relationships, rhythms, and our own sense of purpose.
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Podcast Art Note
The cover image for this episode was inspired by the botanical illustrations of a 19th-century Tennyson book cover found in the attic of our family’s farmhouse inscribed by one of my ancestors, a worn but beautiful piece of our story that felt just right for our beginning.
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Produced by: Arcadian Revival in conjunction with Mary Laniewski @scout.ml
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Website: www.arcadianrevival.com
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Bethany Bowyer Khan on LinkedIn
Subscribe and share if you’ve enjoyed our first episode. We cannot wait to bring you along on so many upcoming stories and adventures.
