Rising Stars: Meet Jeffrey Hughes Jr of Four Square.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Four Square.

Hi Jeffrey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Back in April 2021, I was watching a YouTube video about podcasts. Immediately, I called my friend Lucas to say we’re starting a podcast right now. He said, “okay” and we began coming up with podcast topics. I called our friends Alex and Max a few days later to bring them in on how to get started. For the next 2.5 months, we had late-night meetings to go over logistics, social media management, editing, etc. I assigned Lucas to be the main editor, Alex to be the logistics coordinator, and Max to be the social media manager. In those 2.5 months, we collaborated with other creatives to get a logo and a theme song. On July 30th, 2021, Four Square was born.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. One of the first challenges we faced was working remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With us being in different parts of the southeast, it was difficult to compromise on a decent time for everyone to meet and discuss upcoming challenges. It was common to finish meetings at 1:30 A.M. on a Tuesday. Once we moved on to our 2nd season, we started filming in person instead of over Zoom. The next challenge was that because we are all in different places, so it was hard to find time to shoot in person. The biggest challenge that we still face is consistency. Some of us work day jobs and others are still in school, so finding time to edit videos, post on social media, and gather data analytics all while being in school or working full time is extremely difficult.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The main thing about Four Square is that we are a content creation/entertainment platform, not just a podcast. Starting with our second season, we started what’s called an “episode rollout” to showcase additional content that revolves around the podcast topic. The Four Square Podcast was the gateway into content creation, but we have other segments that cater to different peoples’ interests.

The Four Square Podcast is a podcast about anything and everything ranging from movies and video games to relationships and the effects of social media on modern society. We’re a group of four “squares” or nerds that are learning and navigating the world one episode at a time, and the fellow “squares” that tune in to our episodes are learning and navigating with us. The podcast’s focus is more about our growth as we mature rather than any specific topic or genre. If you like podcasts with fun and engaging topics, The Four Square Podcast is a must-listen!

Four Square presents: After Hours is an audio exclusive talk show that takes a deep dive into subtopics that derive from the episode rollout concept. For example, our 4th episode of the second season was about college. So, the topic of one of the two After Hours episodes was the differences between HBCUs (historically black colleges/universities) and PWIs (predominantly white institutions). The After Hours topics usually revolve around the podcast topic, we just cover deeper subtopics that we didn’t have time to in the podcast runtime. After Hours also tackles more controversial and harsher concepts. This gives us and guests the freedom to be a little more raw and unfiltered to truly express how we feel about certain topics. It’s not rare for someone to get emotional during an After Hours episode. For listeners that like deep conversations/social commentaries, After Hours is a must-listen!

Four Square presents: Local Munchies is a YouTube exclusive mukbang series where we travel to local restaurants around Atlanta and vlog the food back at our studio. The focus of Local Munchies is to support local businesses (hence the name Local Munchies) and shout them out to the fellow squares that keep up with our content. We try our best to avoid chain restaurants and specifically seek out “mom and pop shops” or “hole in the wall” restaurants. We shoot the series as a vlog, so the viewers can see the restaurant interior, see a close-up of the food, and enjoy some good old-fashioned memes. We also post a poll on our Instagram story for our followers to choose which cuisine they want us to try, we call it Viewers’ Choice. If you like food travel shows or mukbangs, Local Munchies is a must-watch!

Currently, we’re in the season two finale rollout which is about spirituality and religion. The rollout should be released by the end of December 2022. We’re also planning for season three, the motto is evolution. The goal is to evolve with better equipment, better presentation, and overall be better than we were before. As far as content goes, we’re keeping the episode rollout concept which includes the LM and AH segments. The only content segment we’re adding is vlogs.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
We came a long way from April 2021. When I created Four Square, podcasts in the “manosphere” were garnering a lot of attention for the wrong reasons. Male podcasts started to become synonymous with this archetype, and I personally encountered people, specifically women, that wrote off The Four Square Podcast because they assumed we talked about the same topics of other male podcasts such as Fresh & Fit. It wasn’t until our third episode of the second season that we adopted the tagline “Changing the Narrative of the Male Podcast ” because I didn’t want us to get pigeonholed in that category. We try our best every episode to post great engaging content and not offend anyone. We sincerely appreciate the fellow squares out there for tuning in to our content whether it’s listening to the podcast and After Hours episodes or eating at the restaurants from our Local Munchies episodes. Don’t forget to share with your friends, family, sneaky links, and entanglements!!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4_sqr/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHSAJepg7Sm8UfT2UYW9Cfg

Image Credits
@amateurphotomun @jaysgaphouse