Are airline pilots allowed to be depressed?

...and are you also experiencing money decision paralysis?

Apr 25, 2025

While we were gathering interviews for this week’s episode about aviation and mental health, I got on and off several airplanes.

As I boarded and deplaned, I found myself meeting the eyes of the pilots and crew for a half a beat longer than usual. I wonder how things are going for you, I’d think.

To fly a plane, pilots must prove to the Federal Aviation Administration that they’re physically and mentally fit. But when it comes to mental health, the rules are complicated and, some say, outdated.

Pilots who need antidepressants are limited to a short list of approved medications and must take a mandatory six-month leave. Even common diagnoses like anxiety or depression can trigger reviews that could ground them.

The F.A.A.’s rules are born out of a desire to keep the public safe. In this episode, we talk to pilots, aspiring pilots, and medical aviation professionals about their unintended consequence: incentivizing people to stay quiet about their mental health challenges.

You’ll hear from a trained therapist who markets her sessions to pilots as “life coaching” so they don’t have to report it, a pilot and a medical examiner trying to work around the system’s limitations, and a once-aspiring pilot who ended up passing on the dream of a flying career after disclosing his anxiety medication.

Listen now.

Death, Sex & Money’s Zoe Azulay did a beautiful job reporting and finding voices for this episode. The New York Times Magazine also had a great piece recently on this called “Why Airline Pilots Feel Pushed to Hide Their Mental Illness.”

Let’s Party with Slate Plus members on May 1 in the Bay!

Hey! Have you joined Slate Plus yet?

Do it! Do it!

If you are already a member, or join now, you get to come hang out MAY 1 in the Bay Area at a special gathering with me and other Slate-sters. There will be food, drinks, and casual chatter about how woo helps us in life. I’m going to bring the oracle deck gifted to me by practical witch and friend of Death, Sex & Money, Rebecca Auman.

neon sign reading bar cocktails dreams disco party — Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Slate Plus members: reply to this email and I’ll tell you how to get on the list for our party in the Bay Area on May 1.

(And Slate Plus members not in striking distance of the Bay Area on May 1, you can also reply and tell us where you wish we’d do a party next.)

Feeling stuck around a money decision right now?

New York Magazine found the platonic ideal of a finance guy to open its piece about Wall Street’s changing feelings about Trump. “Peter Tuchman was standing on a balcony surveying the scene, one side of his unruly white hair flaring up jaggedly like a market chart,” writes Jen Wieczner.

And then, Tuchman gave her this banger of a quote: “People are, you know, freaking a bit….I mean, everyone in here has probably got a 401(k), and suddenly their 401(k) is a 101(k).”

At Death, Sex & Money, we're collecting your stories and questions about how to manage money right now. Questions are swirling about the future of Social Security, how tariffs will affect businesses, grocery prices, and even the underlying fundamentals of market trust.

If you, like me, are thinking: should I change something fundamental…or keep going until…until things become clearer? Money choices, after all, are outgrowths of our values and our attitude toward the future. Where we’re snagged in personal finance tells us a lot about what’s roiling underneath.

We’re convening a panel of “experts” to discuss your money questions and life dilemmas for a future episode. If you’ve got a question where you could use some company, record a voice memo and send it to us at deathsexmoney@slate.com.

Ever try a workplace romance? How’d it go?

Slate’s new workplace advice-givers are squarely against dating on the job. This week in your Slate Plus feed, I talk to Doree Shafrir and Laura Helmuth (a PhD in cognitive neuroscience), authors of Slate’s new work advice column, Good Job. We discuss how to deal with bad bosses, office romances, tricky social politics, and much more. Plus, they offer practical tips on how to kick off an uncomfortable conversation with a coworker.

It got people talking in our workplace, ie Slate’s Slack.