Margaret Malone Interviews Rashida Saunders

Host - Margaret Malone

Interview with Rashida Saunders, author, public safety leader, and founder of Black Ember Press. We discuss Rashida's debut memoir Permission to Break and her path through writing, speaking, and community engagement. Rashida will share how she invites others to examine the cost of silence, reclaiming our voice, and how to lead with both strength and humanity.

About Rashida:

Rashida Saunders is a Portland native, public safety leader, author, and founder of Black Ember Press. With nearly two decades of service in law enforcement, she brings lived experience and grounded leadership to conversations about resilience, identity, and healing. She is the author of Permission to Break: A Memoir of Strength, Silence, and Softness, a reflection on survival, vulnerability, and reclaiming one’s voice.

About Margaret:

Margaret Malone is the host of the monthly literary radio show Bust the Canon on xray.fm, and author of the story collection People Like You, a Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction & Winner of the Balcones Fiction Prize, and selected by Powell’s as one of the Northwest’s “25 Books to Read Before You Die."