The Real Reason Why Indiana Decided to Stop Appearing on the 'Dropouts' Podcast

Content warning: This article discusses abusive relationships.

With millions of listeners and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, Dropouts hosts Zach Justice, Indiana Massara, and Jared Bailey are bona fide stars in the podcast world. Their show has offered fans candid insight into their day-to-day lives, detailing relationships, health scares, funny life stories, and everything in between.

However, the last few months of Dropouts podcasts have been noticeably different because Indiana has been missing from the show. With that being said, what exactly happened to Indiana that caused her to stop appearing on Dropouts?

During a revealing episode released on March 7, 2023, Indiana finally returned to Dropouts to give some insight into what went down that caused her to stop appearing on the show. Over the course of nearly an hour, she gave deep emotional context into her life as a social media star and how it all culminated in her decision to depart from the show.

Indiana broke down that she was previously involved in a toxic relationship that was taking a huge mental toll on her. She met Zach and Jared who recognized that she was going through a rough patch and invited her into their circle as a friend, hoping to help her work through their issues. In the early days of their friendship, Indiana was still involved with the aforementioned toxic ex and he apparently convinced her that spending time with him was more important than Zach and Jared.

Indiana admitted to lying to the other hosts to avoid hanging out with them and see her ex, which Zach said caused tension in their friendship. This culminated in Zach and Jared going to Indiana's house and kicking her ex out at one point. Indiana said that she would get defensive over the whole situation being unable to cope with it all that caused her to lash out against Zach and Jared despite them trying to help her. Nonetheless, Zach made it known that he didn't want to leave Indiana alone.

Things quickly picked up as Indiana revealed what fans had speculated for their entire public friendship: that she fell in love with Zach, but was scared of getting into something new and what could happen to the friendship they had built. Nonetheless, Indiana managed to fully cut off her ex and she and Zach began dating.

But tensions arose quicker than both expected. Zach said that Indiana would "cuss him out" about various things while they were filming and project her anger from other situations onto their relationship. As time went on, things continued to become more difficult for the duo. Indiana admitted to showing up late to filming due to having panic attacks and their arguments became more frequent. According to Zach, he had never been treated worse in a relationship than he was with Indiana.

That treatment from Indiana caused Zach to spiral into a dark place, which seemed to happen around the same time that she said she began seeking therapy and medical intervention for her mental health issues. Indiana described it as a role reversal as she now knew what needed to be done to save their relationship, but the damage from the past had already consequently affected Zach.

Despite efforts to mediate their relationship difficulties, things just weren't working out between the two. Indiana said she booked a flight home to Australia and ended up staying for some time, which naturally made her stop appearing on the show and affectively dissolved her relationship with Zach and friendship with Jared, putting an end to their time as co-hosts on Dropouts. All-in-all, she apologized for any tension that she caused throughout that tumultuous time.

Indiana admitted to not knowing what the future holds for her and Zach or for the podcast as they're still working through their issues. Fans will simply have to stay tuned to see what happens in the future with their romance and the trajectory of the podcast as a whole.

If you or someone you know needs help, use SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator to find support for mental health and substance use disorders in your area or call 1-800-662-4357 for 24-hour assistance.