To test if your .htaccess file is working, you can add a simple rule to it that will redirect all requests to a specific page. For example, you can add the following rule to your .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^$ /test.php [L]
This rule will redirect all requests to the root of your website to the test.php file. You can then create a test.php file in the root of your website and add some code to it to verify that the redirection is working.
To redirect from .html paths to non-.html paths, you can use the following rule:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^podcast/company-info\.html$ /podcast/about [R=301,L]
This rule will redirect all requests for the /podcast/company-info.html page to the /podcast/about page. The [R=301] flag indicates that a permanent redirect should be used, which is better for SEO purposes. The [L] flag indicates that this is the last rule that should be processed if it matches the request.
Make sure to test this rule thoroughly before deploying it to your live website.